#Like. Very mild and not directly and all but idk just in case?? Idk what counts as triggering for whom so

[caricature-of-a-witch]

✨

[forever-rogue]

Hi lovely, idk if you're still taking requests from Joel but in case you are, something with the prompt “If we’re both single next Halloween, you’re allowed to put a curse on me." perhaps?

Probably a little costume party in Jackson, whatever you want. Thank you <3

AN | Okay, but this is sweet, Halloween-y goodness💕

Pairing | Joel Miller x Fem!Reader

Warnings | Mild Language

Word Count | 2.1k

Masterlist | Joel, Main

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

One Year Ago

You spotted him standing near the door, seemingly camped out near the punch bowl with a cup in hand and an unreadable expression. You turned to May and Daisy, excusing yourself as you made your way over to him.

At first Joel didn't even look your way, pointedly keeping his gaze away from you and everyone else. You definitely weren't having that.

"Joel Miller," your voice was honey sweet as you stopped in front of him, a soft smile on your face. He seemed to stiffen for a moment before allowing himself to look at you, "are you just going to stand here all night and scowl at everything?"

"I am not scowling," he huffed, waving a hand as if to prove his point. You rocked back and forth on your heels and looked at him expectantly, "and I haven't just been standing here."

"Hmm…" you helped yourself to a fresh cup of punch and sipped on it slowly, "kinda seems like what you've been doing, honey."

Honey. He could have died and gone to heaven from how sweet your voice sounded. And yet you had no clue as to the effect you had on him.

"I'm just…I didn't really want to be here," he allowed himself to meet your eyes and instead of finding any sort of judgment, he found nothing but curiosity, "but, ugh, I kinda felt forced to be here. So."

"So," you teased gently, "let me guess, Tommy and Ellie?"

"Naturally," he sighed lightly as you giggled softly. It really might have been his favorite sound in the world. It was ridiculous how addicted he was to everything you did, "I realize I'm a downer…I was just getting ready to leave."

"You're not a downer," you put your hand on his forearm and gave him a gentle squeeze, "parties aren't for everyone. Honestly, I don't like them most of the time either but it's my favorite holiday so I couldn't say no."

"Halloween is your favorite holiday?" He quirked a brow at that as you nodded eagerly, "tell me why I am not surprised in the slightest."

"It is very predictable, isn't it?" You gestured to your body - you had gone all out with your witch costume. You looked insanely good but somehow he doubted that you knew that - which was ludicrous by the way. He swallowed thickly as he tried to keep his mind from going directly into the gutter, "have I bewitched you?"

Joel couldn't hold back his snort of amusement as you beamed at him. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to think of a good comeback. Unfortunately he found none and ended up blurring out, "pretty! You look pretty."

"Oh," your entire face flushed with warmth as you bit your lip and looked away for a moment, "what are you supposed to be? Weird guy at a party?"

"Something like that," he was dressed in regular clothes. Just because Ellie made him come didn't mean he was going to dress up.

"Well, whatever you want to call it, you still look handsome," you weren't sure what possessed you to be so bold but you just had to throw it out, "you're a catch, Miller. Even if no one else sees it. Don't even know how you're still single."

"Alright, alright," his cheeks tinged a pretty shade of pink as you nudged him with your elbow, "you can calm down and don't need to flatter me."

"It's not flattery if it's true-"

"Well then, what's your excuse for still being single?"

"I dunno," you tapped your lip thoughtfully, confidence and excitement flooding your veins, "maybe the right one just hasn't shown up yet. Or they're...afraid. who knows."

"How about this little witch," he tapped the edge of your hat, "if we're both still single next Halloween, you can put a curse on me."

"Is that a promise?" You asked as he nodded. You held up your pinkie and gave him a thoughtful look, "better make it a pinkie promise so we know it's real."

"You've got yourself a deal," he hooked his finger around yours, the two of you grinning at each other like fools, "and we'll see what happened next Halloween."

"You're on, Miller. So on."

Next Halloween couldn't come fast enough.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Present Day

The past year has gone by in a blur. It was hard to believe that Halloween had already happened a year ago. It was even harder to believe that Joel was still single…to your knowledge anyway. You were going to be confirming that soon enough.

The two of you were good friends and often spent time together but the past few months had felt…different. You weren't sure quite how to put it into words but it was different - different but good. You thought he might have been flirting with you but it was hard to tell, Joel was a tough nut to crack after all, and you didn't want to be presumptuous either. Imagining how foolish you would have looked if you made a move on him and he didn't feel the same way was enough to put the idea out of your head. 

Instead you were set on enjoying his company and let things happen as happened. But then you remembered - it was Halloween. A whole year since you'd made your little bet with Joel. Which meant…something was going to change between the two of you. One way or another, you knew that something was going to happen.  

You were planning on going over to Joel's house to see what he was up to, but he definitely beat you to the punch. It came in the form of loud, rhythmic knocking on your front door. It was with a huff as you ran down the stairs, half in your costume. 

"Hello?" You were breathless when you answered the door, still deciding on if you were going to chastise whoever was it was or welcome them into your home.

"Hi," and there stood Joel Miller, smug little smile on his face and arms crossed over his chest. The man was dressed as a cowboy and for some reason that was doing something for you.

"Joel," his name was breathy off your lips as you tried not to stare at him too intently. You knew that man could read you like a book, "what are you doing here?"

"Came to see my favorite little witch," he looked you up and down, amused by your current state of dress - or lack thereof. Your entire face felt like it was on fire as you shifted to attempt to cover up your top half. You were only in a bra with a sheer layer on top, "wanted to see if you needed any help with anything."

"I, ugh, umm…sure?" You weren't sure what you needed help with but you definitely didn't want to let him leave. Not yet and not if he went somewhere else and other women got to oogle him. You stepped aside and motioned for him to come in, "I'm sure there's…something."

The man trailed after you, closing the door sharply as he leaned against it. You raised an eyebrow at him but he just continued his quiet and calm stare down. You swore that man could see right into your soul and knew all of your deepest and darkest secrets. You swallowed thickly as you waited with baited breath for what he had to say, "you remember last Halloween?"

"Of course I do," as if you could even forget that night, "what about it?"

"Aren't you going to ask me?"

"Ask what?"

"Don't play coy with me, sweetheart," ugh. Why did he have to sound like that when he called you such sweet things? It should have been illegal, "ask me."

"Are you, Joel Miller…single?" Your heart skipped a few beats as you waited for his response. You were almost positive you knew his answer but still - you could never be positive. He came a step closer and left a much smaller gap between the two of you. You could smell the hints of his soap and aftershave and it sent shivers down your spine.

"I am," he admitted softly, the corners of his mouth ticking up in a smile, "but I think that I don't want to be. So I guess depending on your next answer, mine might change."

Butterflies exploded in your tummy as you tried to read between the lines. Not that that was incredibly hard but you never knew.

"W-what is your next question?" Your voice sounded small as you found it hard to meet his pretty brown eyes. Joel reached over and gently put his finger under your chin and turned your face up to his. His touch was so tender that you almost melted, "Joel?"

"May I kiss you?"

Yeah…you'd been expecting that and not expecting it at all. You allowed yourself to meet his eyes, trying to make sure you'd heard him correctly. Judging from the look on his face, you'd definitely heard correctly. You nodded in response, not trusting your voice at all.

"Need to hear you say it, sweetheart…"

"Yes," you moved closer, "please kiss me."

It took Joel a moment to close the small space remaining between your bodies. One hand settled on your waist while the other cupped your cheek. He pulled you into him and then softly and slowly kissed you. 

It wasn't much at first, a gentle and tentative testing of the waters to make sure you were both on the same page. When you realized, in a moment of bliss, that you both desperately wanted this, you went all in. Kissing Joel felt like nothing you'd ever experienced before you and you couldn't help but want more, more, more. When Joel answered your call with just as much hunger and intensity, you knew this was it.

 Both of you refused to pull away until you were desperately in need of air. For two people that had just been incredibly bold, you were both looking at each other shyly. 

"Are you single?" He asked you in between a few more kisses, craving the touch and taste of your lips.

 "Mhmm," you hummed back contentedly, "but I don't wanna be."

"What do you want then, sweetheart?" He had to be doing this on purpose. But as much as you wanted to say it, he needed to hear it. Needed to know that he wasn't just crazy and imagining all the feelings that had been flowing between the two of you.

"You," you whispered against his lips, "I want you, Joel."

"You have me," he promised as you relaxed and let yourself melt into him completely, "have since I met you."

"Oh. Oh," your eyes grew wide as he took your face in his hands, thumb brushing over your cheek, "its been a long time."

"Yeah," he agreed, "it has been."

"I-I've liked you too," you admitted sheepishly, "for a long time. I've just never…none if you felt the same."

"And here I was thinking that I was being so obvious," he tutted softly, "I'll have to try and be more clear in my intentions. If you'll let me."

"Mhmm," every part of your body felt like it was on fire, "I'd like that."

"Good," he beamed at you before pressing kisses to your forehead, cheeks and stopping at your lips, "what do you say we go to that Halloween party tonight? Together?"

"I'd love to," you could barely contain your giggles as he scooped you up and started to carry you upstairs, "what are you doing?"

"Going to help you finish getting ready," he grinned at you, "among other things. Plus I'm the only one that gets to see you like this, yeah?"

"Yes," you were excited at the prospect of everything that was to come. Everything felt like it was starting to come up roses. Who would have thought that one silly little Halloween promise would have led to all of this? Best Halloween ever - well maybe with the exception of what to come tonight, "yes."

"Happy Halloween, sweetheart."

"Happy Halloween, Joel."

[i-wanna-die-like-now]

Dp x bnha headcanons part 2! Or just weirdly specific things I see happening, idk just my thoughts on stuff.

Tsuyu gets super sleepy around Danny because of his ice powers and almost always struggles with being directly next to him, unlike Todoroki he doesn't have a warm side she can stick to.

Iida almost breaks down when Danny refused to listen to his rules by clicking on his aids (suppression for his sensitive hearing) Bakugou on the other hand finds it hilarious and takes to turning his own aids off when he no longer wants to listen.

Sato invites Danny to his weekly “sugar time” to teach him how to bake as a favour, Danny is surprisingly good at it and eventually him and Sato work together to include ectoplasm into their baking (without it coming to life) so Danny could top up his energy.

^^Bakugou refuses to let Danny near him when he cooks because of that very reason, he'd seen what his ectoplasm can do to food, he does still cook for him on occasion because he's never seen anyone savour his food the way Danny does! It most definitely goes to his head. Danny savours the food because 1. His parents can't cook to save their life. 2. Bakugous food is so much better than any type of take out and 3. He never knows when his next proper meal will be back home and is taking full advantage.

Danny goes to Hatsume for help with making a Fenton thermos (just in case) and she falls in love with the blueprints because what in the world was that layout, it's a mess that she finds thrilling to decipher it. Actually talking to Danny she realizes that no its not a mess he just has ADHD and can't write it down in a way anyone but him understood. (Danny is a genius and you can't convince me otherwise, he just has untreated ADHD 😭)

When Toga drinks Danny's blood her body has trouble with picking what form she changes into and they merge together, eyes changing and flashing in between green and blue and her hair being a mix of black and white. Her face almost looks exactly like Danny but something is off, his eyes are a little too big, his ears are a mix of pointed and normal and his skin has blotches of tan skin and deathly pale. She is fascinated with his green blood though and really wants to taste it, when she finally does get to it burns her tongue and throat and leaves her craving more. (If she separated the ectoplasm from the blood, which is virtually impossible, she'd be able to use the blood for Fenton and ectoplasm for Phantom. Because its the same DNA her quirk registers it as one person when mixed together and that's what causes them to blend)

Stain on the other hand would hate the taste and then finds out his quirk doesn't actually work on him properly, it makes his body heavy and very hard to move but it doesn't paralyze him completely because of the ectoplasm. He also definitely sees the potential Danny has.

Danny info dumps about space to everyone and everything at any chance he can, someone asks a question that shows they have a mild interest in the subject and he's off like a rocket. Izuku joins in with his own info dumping about heroes and their quirks, it somehow merges together and they start talking about space quirks and space themed heros.

Uraraka brings up sending him to space with her quirk halfway through a disagreement and Danny straight up drops it and asks her is she would. "Don't worry I can survive if I'm in my ghost form, it's for science! Hey- No wait don't walk away!" He ends up moping around for a whole week after and when Aizawa asked why he loses 5 years off his life. "Please don't ask your classmates to try and kill you." "But sir I'm already dea-" "get out!"

He duplicates himself so he can hold both of Eris hands to swing her, Eri loves to try and figure out which one is the original and she's surprisingly good at it.

Todoroki uses his fire side to help with Danny's chronic pain, after a while it becomes a habit to hold hands and all their spare time they're glued to eachother, neither of them are complaining.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

So in your most recent ramble on Theories technically isn't Frank being atheist slightly concious of what's going on cannon since artwork of him being aware of other puppet parts was in the recent update? What if some neighbors really know nothing but others actually do know of a little bit of what's happening but Wally doesn't realize they do so he tries to keep face?

Though I'll admit with your idea of that not being the "Real" Barnaby in the Interview may explain why Wally went really quiet during the interview even when being directly asked things once Barnaby showed up

Kind like he was so focused on the "That's not Barnaby. Why do they Look like him? Who are They??" That the Interviewers questions got completely ignored as "Barnaby" answered the question instead until Wally snapped out of it.

Just thoughts on your thoughts of many thoughts- Thoughts!

sorry i Did Not See This!

for a moment i was very confused as to what you meant by "athiest" but i see - you meant "at least!" yes, i've been tentatively believing in Frank being a bit aware because of your stated reason, and also purely based on vibes and how he's been shown to be more, ah, cynical than the others. or... knowledge seeking? nosy but in a technical way. mild example is when he mused on how he's never seen a blue dog before in his bug audio w/ Barnaby.

and i do believe in the idea that everyone - or almost everyone knows somethings up, but they're not sure what / it's an easy feeling to ignore. like how i've talked about Howdy potentially knowing that he's selling props / inedible objects as food, but everyone can eat it anyway. so he's just like "fuck it yeah sure, i'll sell soap as mashed potatoes", yk? then of course in the Halloween update - which i know this ask was sent before it, apologies again - Sally knows there's somethin' the fuck up in the neighborhood at night. i wouldn't be surprised if everyone has a little Something they've noticed that bothers them deep down...

and Wally... honestly i'm starting to suspect that - again! If there's a time discrepancy between "official" audios and the secret ones or at least all audios vs his interactions with the whrp/qa/You - Wally in the official audios isn't quiiiite up to speed? like, he probably knows what he is and the like, but he's still figuring out everyone's places and the nature of his existence. like how in the Halloween "secret" audio 00, where he eats part of Barnaby's candy apple - it seemed like it took a great effort, like Wally was just trying it out. like a "i think i can do this... i'm trying..." it strikes me as a "new" thing for him there. he's not accustomed to it? idk... but whatever the case Wally certainly knows that he has to keep Secrets! can't tell the others about literally anything!

as for the interview - tbh i don't think Wally was quiet because he noticed that Barnaby was (potentially) just a person in a suit. several reasons! i have a feeling that Wally being Aware means that he understands, at least on some level, what a puppet is and the nature of it, so it wouldn't really disturb him? or maybe it would... apple pie and all... SO! another piece of reasoning! it's possible that Wally had no idea that that Barnaby "wasn't" Barnaby. After all, how could he tell?

personally, i think Wally was just quiet because, well, he's not much of a talker - at least not around Company it seems! in all of the audios where he's with other neighbors, he fades into the background and defers to them, only chiming in occasionally. and the Interview appears to be set in the early days of Welcome Home the tv show, so Wally would still be uh. for lack of a better word, fresh outta the box. if Barnaby starts talking, naturally Wally would sit back and let him lead. Wally takes a beat too long formulating a response and Barnaby barrels on - well what would Wally do? interrupt? that would be rude...

[doomzday-zone]

how do you feel about the whole 'phantom ruby originated from The End' theory. i personally love it, the cyber corruption sonic gets is like a mild version of what infinite has to deal with every day & there's more voices fucking w him

OKAY tbh originally i didnt think id have too much to say on this(and i still might not lol but Im Thinking really hard abt it so it COUNTS !!!!!) n whatever cause i personally don't really give a shit abt sonic frontiers it just doesnt intrigue me as a Complete *thing*

HOWEVER !!!!!!!!!!!!

i just watched like over an hours worth of End related videos and????????? THIS SHITS CRAZYYYYYY its so insane how this fits in w my lore n shit 4 the phantom rubies personally (Sega upholding the tradition of stealing ideas directly from my brain<33 im just that good😏)

my actually genuine reaction when the celestial bodies n space rocks r sentient w power that rivals the chaos emeralds:

LIKEEEE. okay. okay. not to be infifi lorepilled on main r anything. *i explode💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥*

I THINK ITS A VERY FUN IDEA. idk how i feel abt the phantom rubies coming directly from The End but i can def see how they can be related to each other, esp knocking sonic out of his super form briefly COME ONNN literally phantom ruby reference?!?!!?. i rest my case💼. i still dont think i know enough about The End to give a full comparative analysis on The End and pts abilities n such but i can 100% see the correlation anf thinks its a VERY VERY fun idea even if i dont necessarily agree w them being one n the same... ill have to do more research n come back to this for sure.

ill end this w a silly thought of my own though(lmk if this has already been said lol... i dont keep up w all this lol): obv ive seen ppl compare the dialouge of The End and infinite..... AND. hear me out if we were to run w the phantom rubies and End being of similar origin and ignore every other supplementary material that expounds on infinite besides Sonic Forces there is a teeny tiny bit of room to consider infinite rock possession😳 like the way they speak in certain contexts is similar and like.... if we can consider the phantom rubies as vessels that serve as an extension of The Ends power perhaps....?😳😳😳

OBV ik this is a MASSIVE stretch and isnt fully backed by canon but. a silly theory to consider to regardless lol. if someone else has already come up w this idcccc its mine now. bajabnsbbd

[sanguineslave]

HI HELLO I SAW YOUR POST ABOUT GIVING U A PROMPT AND I LEAPT TO SUBMIT THIS

so uhh is it ok if you write some fluff about my bard Tav, Severin (he/him) having Astarion as the muse for his music? except Astarion doesn’t know this until after he shows the camp a song he wrote (and i didn’t add gale because i didn’t think to, i got the other main ones in cano though lmao). also this is Severin

tysm for reading this!!

Okay, I sort of went overboard with this because I haven't written anything longer than a few paragraphs in AGES, and I've literally never written fluff, but I hope this is alright! Your Tav looks so cool 👉👈 I was kinda afraid to write about him too much cuz idk his personality eksjejsjj

Misunderstandings

Content style: angst, fluff (???), comedy, probably ooc

Content warnings: mild references to violence and problems with sexual boundaries

Astarion is used to people staring at him. The past two centuries of his life had been filled with wanton gazes; his life's purpose was to attract attention everywhere he went, and he did it very well. He knew he was beautiful, tempting and handsome. He even revelled in it.

...So why was Severin's stare sending chills up his spine?

It had been going on for a few days, now— this awkward little situation. Astarion would sit and read, or pretend to read and eavesdrop on others' conversations. This was the routine he'd adopted since he first arrived at camp. But, now, anything he did was accompanied by fleeting little glances from the camp bard. At first, Astarion figured the man had fallen head-over-heels for him, that he was hot under the collar and desperate for some attention. Now, he's not sure if Severin is crushing on him or plotting his murder. His gaze is too fiery, too trained on the features of his face to be lustful. He never directly approaches him, either; just watches from behind his tent flaps, crossed legged and only ever looking away when Astarion meets his gaze.

Confronting Severin about all of this had crossed his mind, but he'd decided against it. Avoidance, Astarion figured, was probably the best course of action, at least until Severin finally snapped and put a blade to his throat. After all, he couldn't exactly prove that the bard had murderous intentions. Maybe he was just shy. Maybe, he was working up the courage to ask for a fuck and had no idea how ridiculously creepy his staring was. He wouldn't be the first man to be so oblivious...

"Tonight, we feast!" Wyll's booming voice rips Astarion from his thoughts, head snapping around to see what the warlock was fussing over. Beside him, Lae'zel holds up an elk by the antlers, the creature's eyes lifeless and clouded. There was an arrow sticking into its neck, weeping blood fresh enough to smell on the air.

"Fuck yes! I'll start the fire," Karlach rubs her hands together, the heat generated between them enough to create flickering embers.

"I'll fetch our wine," Shadowheart adds.

All at once, everyone is bustling around the camp, grabbing pots and emptying baskets to find fresh vegetables. Everyone except Astarion, of course, who bristles in place. A camp get-together was the last thing he needed; declining the invitation would make him look sulky in front of his companions, and joining them would entail a night full of Severin's awkward stares. The Hells was he supposed to do?

"Astarion?" Wyll calls his name, pensive. He hadn't realised he was scowling, fangs just barely peeking out from under his lip. "I was going to leave a hunk of the meat raw, in case, you know..."

Aha! An opening!

"Oh, no, dead meat is of no use to me. I like my food... Very fresh. I'm afraid I'll have to hunt for my own meal tonight." He plays his best pout, eyes gleaming with insincerity. For once, his vampirism was a benefit; it was an excuse to hunt, to leave camp for a few hours while everyone else talked amongst themselves. Moreover, Severin wouldn't be able to chase after him with everyone else around him, watching. Most likely, he'd be the night's entertainment, strumming songs on his lute until his finger pads were raw and everyone was full of stew. Yes... Yes, this was the perfect excuse to get some peace and quiet!

"You're not joining us tonight?" Severin's voice is like honey, smooth and warm. There's a hint of... Disappointment? Sadness, perhaps, in it as well. Astarion regards him with a courteous nod, jaw clenching slightly. How could such an innocent face belong to a killer? Well— actually, that was a stupid question. Everyone in this camp was a killer; everyone had killed goblins and bandits and gods-know-what-else along their journey. Astarion mentally rephrased his sentence: how could such an innocent face, a face that had so openly welcomed his vampirism weeks earlier, be planning his demise? The idea seems preposterous now that he's up close to the other for the first time in days. Hells, there was no way it was true.

If he had the ability to, Astarion might've blushed in embarrassment. This paranoia was unbecoming of him; it was childish, something his siblings might've engaged in. Of course Severin wasn't planning on killing him!

"...not tonight," is all he manages before scampering away.

---

A small boar and a few hares. The forest was almost empty tonight. Lae'zel, all brutish and ugly as sin, must have chased all the game away in her hunt earlier...

Or, maybe, he's just sloppy tonight.

Astarion can't think of much besides Severin. Like many a man and woman before him, he was enchanted by his looks. Unlike most, though, he wasn't direct enough to proposition him for sex outright. He was more like a blushing maiden, or one of those gruff, bearded Gur he'd find in taverns— too scared to approach a man for pleasure but clearly interested in the idea. Confessing his vampirism must've put him on edge, blinding him to reason. Guilt pools in his stomach. Not only had he made assumptions about an ally, but he'd been depriving him of a service he wanted. What a horrible person he was.

---

The walk back to camp is more like a shuffle, his feet heavy and slow. Part of him hopes that everyone will be asleep when he returns, but he knows that chance is slim. And, sure enough, when the gleam of their campfire comes into view, he hears bouts of boisterous laughter and drunken conversation. Astarion steels himself, paints a confident facade over his face.

Before he can step into the clearing, Severin interrupts him.

"Alright, alright, I'll play it for you. It's not finished yet, though, so you mustn't judge it!"

Then, a gentle, melodic tune thrums to life through the strings of his lute. Astarion pauses, watching through thick tree branches. He sings gently, quietly— like he's embarrassed of his own work. The lyrics are hard to make out from behind the camp, but a few words make their way to his ears.

They make his jaw slacken.

Sanguine eyes, hair of silver, something something... Adventures, tales of legend, something...

Astarion kicks himself internally. He'd never been so wrong about someone. The tadpole in his head, clearly, was eating away at his intelligence and leaving him stupid. Of course Severin, a bard, was using his environment as inspiration for his music. The staring, the lack of conversation... It was all because he was observing him from afar. Every arrow he let loose, every book he nestled into after a long day— he was being immortalised in song, in poetry.

He releases a breath he didn't know he was holding. A deep dread, seated in the bottom of his unbeating heart, evaporates all at once and he feels a little lighter. Happy, even.

When Severin finishes, Astarion comes into the firelight and claps slowly, his usual confidence restored with a renewed vigor.

"Bravo, bravo! What an inspiring performance, darling!" The others seem to agree with him, nodding their heads and cheering with varying degrees of sobriety. "If I were a goblin, I'd lock you up like that Volo character and have you sing about me all day long." He makes sure to hold his gaze with those words, eyes radiating a sincerity he can't portray through words. Thank you, they say. Thanks for what, exactly, he isn't sure. But he's thankful nonetheless.

Thank you, Severin.

[agoddamn]

I sat down and pounded out several chapters of Engage to try and recruit Mauvier so I could see his birthday lines and missed the window by about two hours. </3

I really do not know how this dude is convincing himself he's helping Veyle through all this brainwashing. I had thought that maybe none of them ever really spoke to her (which seems to be the case with Marni) but Mauvier is supposed to be her actual knight who cares about her as a person and it's not until chapter 21 that he finally says, "I think the repeated brainmelting might be kind of bad for her"? With the mildest dissent possible, too. He is so mild about his dissent that he will even happily deliver another soldier back to the cause of brainmelting Veyle!

So far Mauvier seems like the kind of guy who's genuinely so stupid that you could convince him to suck your dick by telling him a bee stung you and you need his help getting the venom out.

As tired as waif mind-controlled to villainy is as a trope, Veyle's (JP) voice actor does an amazing job with the switching back and forth. I was enjoying just listening to her.

Got the DLC for my birthday and the way they present the 3H characters as having a "friendly rivalry" dynamic lmaooooo that's literally the name of the skill! I don't know what game these characters are from but it's not 3H

Lindon get! The average age of my army is slowly creeping up. Love that he's just...a guy. "Yeah idk I'm not vibing with this Fell Dragon thing any more, can I bounce with you?"

I can tell that the devs are having him constantly mention his wife in order to dissuade me personally, but that ain't gonna work

Got my very first A-rank support! Diamant and Alcryst. Definitely did not play naturally for it, took a lot of forcing them onto each other.

I had intended to use Rosado, but after his first map I realized how bad his shitty build score was crippling him. Bench juice.

I don't understand the economy in this game. It feels like there was supposed to be a money DLC grinding map like Fates--there's so many huge money sinks. The country donations? The gifts? The ingots showing up at the flea market? Weapon refining? Hell, the costumes? Absolutely fucking deranged of someone to make a dress cost a silver bar. And that's before getting into traditional FE money drains like staves and Master Seals! Makes me suspect a money grinding DLC might drop...

Me realizing the reinforcements on 21 aren't going to stop: I AM BEGGING YOU TO GET OFF MY DICK

Two break bars revival stones are stressful. Although... I'm this far in the game and I don't actually know what the "running wild" state does lmfao every time I see revival stones I set up my team to be able to end things in one round. At this point, enemies on the map are doing so much damage that it's a death sentence to try and tank hits.

Framme fell off and got benched :( this really is Fire Emblem: Bases

And with Saphir, the average age of my army climbs yet higher!

Weird, though--in English she's Saphir but the JP sounds a lot more like Zephaia, and Lady Badguy is Zephia in English but Sepia in Japanese.

"Why the fuck would you send ONE soldier as backup--oh. Her. Carry on."

She's afraid of heights...m-moe

She bullied the absolute shit out of Griss 😂 dance brave axe dance brave axe die

I gave her Lyn and much like Diamant, she's getting scary with an actual speed stat. I'm getting her to double with her brave axe on enemy phase.

Lindon...lends himself very well to the "dirty researcher" archetype, huh...

--Panette and Pandreo are siblings?? I guess they do have the same hair color...come to think of it, I think I remember hearing about this pre-release. I learned this from the ally notebook because Panette is another one who joined and went directly to the bench

So Lindon wants to do research with Mauvier, huh...

[daz4i]

Scenario: Nikolai is suddenly part of the ADA (post this arc? Pre this arc? Maybe this is an ADA AU separate from what has happened so this is a Nikolai that didn't stab the crap out of Atsushi? Idk I am not thinking this out fully, but if you want to go ahead.)

Who does he get along the best with?

Who does he get along the least with?

Who does he get partnered with starting out?

What sort of cases does he prefer?

Inquiring minds want to know your ideas and opinions on an ADA Nikolai 🙏

oooooo a very interesting concept! tbh, i don't think he could last a day there, too many rules :P but theoretically at least!

1. maybe I'm biased and maybe that one post abt clowns and furries sharing a secret language is stuck in my head. but i wanna say he'll like atsushi! or at least think he's really cool, and if in this au he's generally like. better, he will do what he can to help atsushi break free from his trauma and let go of the memories of the orphanage director, i think. pre the accident he'll probably go "hey, you want me to kill that guy for you?" and when kunikida yells at him he'll say it's a joke (but privately make it clear to atsushi it isn't and he can just say the word and it'll happen)

2. speaking of. no way in hell he could get along with kunikida 😭 they might have their moments of intense yet mostly friendly discussions but overall their methods will just clash too much unfortunately. hell on earth for all parties involved

3. turning to the ask i replied a few minutes ago, he and tanizaki would be crazy good as partners, at least technically speaking. but tbh personality wise too! i think tanizaki is chill enough (mostly) to balance nikolai's pep if needed. the only problem is once tanizaki gets murderous bc someone might hurt naomi, nikolai pulls a foam finger from the overcoat and starts cheering him on instead of reeling him back in to avoid, yknow, murder.

4. he's less about solving, i think 🤔 more about saving people from danger directly. given how he does have the whole "releasing people from the prisons of their minds" thing going on, I'd say he has at least some mild need to save people, and fukuzawa might lean into that and assign him this type of cases (ironically i think that means he'll have to work often with kunikida lmao)

that being said. i think he will have some knack to solving crime if he really wanted it. I'm a firm believer he's smarter than he lets on, and is quick at thinking on his feet and choosing the correct course of action to fit the situation, which might translate into being very perceptive very quickly. so if someone like ranpo or dazai isn't available he might be sent off and figure it out too. the problem is he will go after the suspect without telling anyone anything first :P

[stitchthesewords]

Here's some fun, non-to-lightly spoilery Rift AU thoughts for everyone!

So Ren in Rift AU is inspired by the faon interpretation [maybe closer to canon? I havent watched s7] of Mayor Scar mixed w the Red King from 3rd Life - Specifically, Ren is inspired by @mochiwrites's Scar in her Good Crimes AU [Which if you haven't read you ABSOLUTELY should]. I just love how she wrote Scar to be publicly one way and Privately another, and while I certainly don't imagine that Ren the King is quite as beloved, the inspiration is there.

Originally, Rift AU was tagged w Watcher Grian but I changed that because I want to mess with the Rift as it's own separate force and leave the Watchers for something else. I think the Watchers [And Listeners! *looks at Martyn*] function more as an ancient, ANCIENT religion, maybe even older than the ancient cities.

Also another original idea that's been put to the side for now is that the Warden was a watcher - I don't know where I was originally going with that idea, but it was my first pivot after deciding Grian wasn't going to be the watcher.

For anyone curious, and because I don't know if I'll name it directly in the stories or just leave it more ambiguous, I'm basing Scar's mobility issues and chronic pain off my own experiences with Cerebral Palsy, among other things. I have a very mild for of Cerebral Palsy that left me with a weaker right side and mobility issues and I absolutely wanted to make sure Scar was still disabled even if he isn't wheelchair bound. I imagine that he certainly has a wheelchair for bad days, but those would be like. Really bad days. The staff - to - cane that he has, made out of the same magical wood as his tree, is probably good for most of the sort of bad days.

Rift AU actually started as a way for me to explore sculk and ancient cities in fiction, which is funny given that we are now 17k in and counting with no mention of either. I have plans for it, but the story needed more work up than I was originally anticipating, which is great! I'm really enjoying returning to my roots with fanfiction, which is the whole reason I started writing Rift AU in the first place

Obviously I'm sort of picking and choosing what elements from hermitcraft [and the life series] I want to include in Rift AU but I am a little bit grumpy that I started writing it before I really fully understood the king plot [When I started, I had only watched Grian and Etho. Now I've caught up on Ren, Impulse, Mumbo, and Cleo, with plans to watch Pearl, Tango, Zedaph, and Doc next. I also really want to watch Beef and Iskall lol] because now I really wanna jam the whole royal council shenanigans in there and I'm not gonna be able to without probably retconning Scar and Ren's relationship which I refuse to do!

Obviously, Mumscarian and Treebark are in the story, and there's also going to be platonic Soup Group and platonic Team ZITS [bc. Skizz deserves to be here. I love him]. I won't tell you ALL of the pairings that end up in the story because a. I feel like we're be here all day but b. some of them are spoilers but I AM planning on having Solidaritek [Apparently team ranchers is only for platonic or something???] and ZedBeef and also Ethubs all make their own appearances. There might even be some like short stories following a few of the other couples in the story because I have attachments to Ethubs in particular. IDK if you can tell but Etho is my favorite hermit and I used to watch him all the way back in 2011 on his singleplayer world. I remember the boat dispenser. My baby girl.

One of these days I will genuinely type up an essay about my latent energy theory but in case anyone else is interested here's a very short tldr version: Redstone, Glowstone, End Rods, debatably sculk [I havent decided if it falls into the same category yet tbh], etc etc all power themselves via latent energy. That latent energy is compatible with electricity in some way, as evidenced by the fact that lightning rods can be used to power redstone machines, but it's different. More in between electricity and magic - either because it actually is or because it's not as understood by the people who work it. That same latent energy is the stuff magic feeds off, like is seen in Changing of the Season to help rejuvenate Scar. Whatever it is is old. Older than the Ancient Cities since they knew to build redstone machines to distract the Warden. It's older than the end cities, too, since end rods exist. Arguably it has always been and will always be around in some way.

Also this might not interest anyone else but thoughts on vampires and elves. Vampires are more closely related to Zombies, whereas Elves [Who are Fae, which means the Vex are included here] are more closely related to Endermen than anything [<- that will come up again] - and then the Warden and sculk are like. Very distant cousins of vampires. Sort of. Their trees connect somewhere.

[diavolosthots]

Can we get how the brothers would react to mc being on her or their (idk which you’d prefer) period and just being easily irritated all week?

*** REQUESTS ARE NOT OPEN THIS IS FROM LAST TIME*

I KNOW I've done this before but i cant find it so i guess I'm doing it again. Also note: I personally don't have any issues with my period, i dont get cramps, it lasts like 3 days tops, and my flow isnt heavy, so this is very generic and based on the majority of the population that is NOT like me.

Warning: mild arguments with some of the brothers, period

THE BROTHERS reacting to MC having their period 

Lucifer:

Get sassy with him, he dares you. He does not care that your hormones are out of balance or that you’re bleeding Satan’s waterfall out of your body; respect is a state of mind and can be shown at any cost. Discomfort can be tamed and if you think that he won’t use every spell known to demon kind of you to get you to stop complaining about cramps, you’re wrong. They will work too and all of a sudden you have a shocked look on your face and are feeling kind of embarrassed for snapping at him, but don’t worry, he’ll just make you apologize. Lets it slide. Come to him directly next time and he’ll use that spell on you to get rid of cramps and pain, as long as you don’t get sassy again. 

Mammon:

LMAO what even is the human body? One minute you were perfectly fine and then he apparently said something to piss you off? What the hell, man!? Will defend himself, of course, and get pissy with you, too, asking you why you’re onto him in the first place. If you yell “I’m on my period you twat!” Be prepared to explain, as simple as possible, what that is and how it affects you. Will most likely expect compensation for dealing with your emotional self and catering to your needs. Take him out for dinner afterward and you’re all good; dealing with hormonal people is exhausting, after all. 

Leviathan:

He, sadly, knows what it is, and in all honesty, would rather hide away from you in his room during the entirety of your period. He can’t handle you crying and then yelling at him with tears in your eyes and screaming for chocolate!!! He’ll leave blankets and cookies outside your room and talk from a safe distance, but he’s too scared to mess up and make you angry by saying something that’s not right. He’s heard horror stories of people on their periods and the last thing he wants is for you to cry to him about how one potato didn’t taste the same as the other when he cooked dinner that day… he can’t handle it. 

Satan:

Of course he knows what it is, and he could smell blood from miles away. At first, he tried to be understanding. He gave you what you wanted, got you what you needed, but you still ended up irritated with him, which had him irritated, and yes it did end up in a shouting match and you crying, him storming off. He’ll feel bad, after a couple of hours, and return with food and your favorite movie, but don’t think he won’t hold that grudge for the next argument you have with him. Hormones are a bitch, and he has anger issues. This is not a good mix. Don’t rely too much on him from here on out. 

Asmodeus:

He’s the KingTM. Heating pads, tampons, chocolate, and him naked are all ready. He heard an orgasm is the best way to relieve cramps and he’s ready to give you plenty of those ;) Has no fear and or shame toward period blood and will go down on you/fuck you into the mattress regardless of the circumstances… as long as both of you can take a nice, relaxing bath afterwards. He most likely won’t get too irritated if you are angry with him for whatever reason, but he might sass back. A soft, “just like you.” might leave his mouth sooner or later if you stab at him with anything truly mean.

Beelzebub:

Poor boy knows like the basics of what’s going on with you and that’s it. Chances are, you started getting sassy with him out of nowhere, without telling him what was going on, and he of course ignored you, not wanting to deal with an attitude. This would probably make you angry and or cry/feel down. In both cases he’ll ask what’s wrong and if you do tell him you’re on your period, he’ll make a little ‘O’ face, and ask what you need. He’s still doing his own thing, though, so don’t expect him to drop everything and tend to your every need. He’ll pick up food from his way home from the gym, or sit down with you to laze around a bit, holding you tight, but nothing too mind-blowing

Belphegor:

Why are you mad at him now?! He’s apologized for something he isn’t even sure he did for the tenth time today, because if he didn’t, you’d cry again, or ignore him, or feel down about yourself. Why are you so emotional? He’s already given you his pillow and his cardigan and now you’re practically one with him so what more could you need?! He’s just trying to take a nap, with or without you, not try and figure out astrophysics. A loud sigh would leave him, probably upsetting you, and now he has to pull out his secret weapon of chocolate, but at least that’s sure to make you happy for a little while. 

[earthstellar]

Rewatching Transformers G1 S2: Episode 1: Autobot Spike

Yes, this is where the Surprised Ratchet meme image comes from:

This episode has a lot going on including near-death of a human character on screen, body horror/a Frankenstein plot, and some genuinely unsettling scenes mostly made creepy due to the combination of some interesting dialogue/voice acting and typical G1 Quality. 

And Spike shoots Starscream in the ass mid-flight, which is fantastic. 

He also shoots his dad, which is less fantastic. 

Being a horror nerd, I love this episode, so here we go! 

Gonna put this below a cut because I’m taking a lot of screenshots here:

You can watch the whole episode on YouTube here in 4 parts, if you want to watch along! 

Alright, so it opens with Sparkplug trying to create “Autobot X”, which is straight up just a Frankenstein’s Monster of autobot parts. It’s weirdly creepy, and vaguely reminiscent of the infamous Ratchet-Megatron fusion in the Marvel comics.

I want to point out that Sparkplug says “I wanna see what I can do with a lotta spare Autobot parts and some human ingenuity” before the reveal shot above, and that’s horrific if you think about it for more than like, three seconds. 

It also may have been the origins of the MECH plot line in TFP, actually! Very similar body horror type thing going on. Anyway.

It works briefly, but it flips out and has to get shut down. 

Ironhide fires a laser, problem solved, nobody’s worried. They put Autobot X in storage, because surely a rampantly aggressive seemingly sentient pastiche of random Autobot parts is nothing to worry about. It’s fine. 

Wheeljack is like, hell yeah, I’ll help you work on it later. Which is when we get the Surprised Ratchet image, because yeah, I bet Ratchet’s freaked out a little since this thing is made of SPARE AUTOBOT PARTS. 

Then we’re swept immediately into a fight with Megatron, as many Seekers as you can fit in frame at one time, and Soundwave. 

For whatever reason, Bumblebee shows up driving through a bunch of partially blown up missile/rocket components, with Spike in the driver’s seat. Even Spike is like, dude, why are we here? And Bumblebee is just like, I mean, we couldn’t NOT show up. lmao

Unsurprisingly, Bumblebee gets shot-- In alt-mode, with Spike inside. Uh oh. 

Megatron leaves, because Frank Welker can only voice so many characters at once, and our attention is turned to the carnage. 

Ratchet is like, sure, I can fix Bumblebee right up! Meanwhile, Ironhide is like oh god, oh my god, is this how you hold a human??? Is it dead??? Optimus is gonna be pissed. 

So Optimus rolls up like, listen, take him to the hospital, come on. Ratchet lets him in the back of his ambulance mode, and Prowl goes with him so that he can throw his emergency lights on to give the illusion of a police escort, ensuring the drive is even quicker. 

(I miss the days when Prowl wasn’t a total asshole.) 

It cuts pretty quickly to Spike in an operating theatre; Apparently getting shot by alien space lasers isn’t conducive to human health: 

It cuts again to the attending physician standing at Spike’s beside, presumably in ICU although they appear to be in a private room, with Sparkplug on the other side of the bed. 

The doctor says “Hmm, if only there were a way of separating Spike’s mind from his body while we work...” Which, uh, what? What surgeon says that? You can sort of already do that in actual human medicine, it’s called an induced coma. 

But sure, we need exposition here, I get it. The screenplay here is tight. Sparkplug says he has an idea...

Back at the Autobot hangout, things seem fairly chill, considering. 

Ratchet is welding Bumblebee’s ass in alt-mode, while Bumblebee complains about how long it’s taking. lol 

Meanwhile, Wheeljack and Sparkplug somehow have Spike hooked up to a Ghostbusters colander helmet, which will hopefully transfer his mind into the malfunctioning/in stasis Autobot X frame. Yikes. 

It works! Spike is now also Autobot X. We will call him Spike X for short. 

And for some reason, Spike saying “D-Da-ad?” with this faceplate expression is incredibly funny to me, while also being really weird and creepy: 

However, this is only cool for like two seconds, at which point Spike X truly starts to lose his shit. 

It gets real creepy here, with Spike X saying in a very oddly flat inflection “Why? Why did you do this to me? Why?” and it’s pretty wild. There’s even a mild strobe effect for a few frames. 

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker try to help calm him down, but Spike X throws them both across the room. 

Optimus is like, oh shit, we made a giant metal teenager. Stop him, but use low power, because if the Autobot X frame is damaged too much, then Spike’s consciousness may not be able to be returned to his actual human body. 

Note that Optimus says this in a pretty relaxed way, then levels a shoulder mounted cannon straight at Spike X, which is incredibly funny. 

It quickly gets deeply weird and creepy again when Spike X is temporarily able to talk with his dad, and states that “it’s hard to think, like something is telling me to do... bad.... things!” Yiiiiiikes. 

He gets it under control again, apologises to his dad for the outburst (I think it’s OK, Spike), and Optimus says that he’s cool to stay at the base and he’ll be taken care of while his human body heals up. 

However, oh shit, the Decepticons have found out that Spike now has an Autobot frame-- And they know he’s unstable. 

Starscream tries to roast him, but Megatron’s like, shut up nerd, we’re gonna make Spike X turn against the Autobots! It’s a good plan, I’m serious! 

Back at the Autobot base, Ratchet is still welding Bumblebee’s ass, and Bumblebee is still complaining. Wheeljack hooks up Spike X with some network television, and he’s watching... Frankenstein. Because the six year old kids who are the intended audience of G1 may not be familiar with the source material for this episode’s plot, I guess, which is fair. (Frank Welker nails it here as Dr. Frankenstein, but that’s unsurprising, because he always nails it. I think he’s also voicing Frankenstein’s Monster, but I haven’t checked the credits.)

Obviously, this isn’t a great thing for Spike X to be watching at this particular moment, so he freaks out again. 

Wheeljack and Sparkplug come running, and somehow Sparkplug is covering ground faster than Wheeljack. It’s fine, don’t worry about it. 

Ratchet’s progress on welding Bumblebee’s ass is interrupted by Spike X breaking through the wall and seemingly flying away. lmao 

They just sort of stand there, like, well, we lost him, I guess. 

Bumblebee is like, alright, gonna go get my boy. 

So he drives out of this massive crater, and Ratchet is like, wait! Your radio transmitter still doesn’t work. (Apparently their radio transmitters are located in their asses. Fascinating.) 

Spike X sits on a cliff and says “what a drag”, which, yeah. Being a Frankenstein space robot would be cool if not for the immense psychological damage this is absolutely causing. 

However, he also calls himself a “walking garbage can” in a completely genuine put-out tone of voice, which absolutely sells that this is a teenager in a giant robot body and I laughed, I won’t lie. 

Some of Megatron’s cronies locate him and hold his position. 

At the same time, Bumblebee shows up and tries to talk Spike X down from a random destructive rampage. 

He throws Bumblebee off the cliff! And Megatron’s squad is rolling up. (Well, flying up, anyway.) Uh oh! 

Spike X is like, hell yeah, bring it. More ass to kick. And it turns out his arm mounted cannon works, because he shoots Starscream directly in the undercarriage and says “YEAH, MAN!” and it’s so genuine. 

This is the perfect reaction to being a teenager in a giant robot body and just suddenly being able to shoot lasers and kick ass. Look at how happy he is, that he just shot Starscream in the butt mid-air. It’s awesome.

Unfortunately, the Seekers do actually beat him up, although Spike X puts up a good fight. 

Megatron then takes advantage of his further weakened state, and swoops in to pitch a classic “Join Us” speech. Spike X calls him “Megacrumb”, which is probably acceptable because he’s absolutely concussed by this point. 

Megatron is willing to overlook this for the sake of teaming up. 

Bumblebee eavesdrops, and drives away-- But Spike X gives Megatron a handshake, and agrees to “make them pay”. Oh shit! 

For some reason, Optimus and Ironhide are back at the rocket facility to watch a launch. Because I guess whatever, this whole situation is chill, let’s go watch rockets? IDK 

But either way, Optimus roasts the inferior quality of human technology, while Bumblebee just drives up on site despite Military Police levelling sniper rifles at him in order to report that Megatron is taking advantage of Spike X’s inability to think clearly. 

Optimus says “I feared something like this might happen”, which, if that were the case, why not take actions to prevent it, maybe? Not the strongest Optimus episode. 

To be fair though, Ironhide transforms and is already driving off before Optimus even gives the order to roll out, so I guess Ironhide either really wants to kick some ass or cares slightly more about Spike X’s wellbeing. He has no dialogue here, so we can only guess. 

They get there, with even more Autobots who showed up at some point in the rapid scene cuts here, and Spike X is super unhinged-- Charging his weapons, he starts speaking in a more strained and angry way, and engages the Autobots! 

He hits Optimus with what appears to be a chest laser? It’s hard to see. But it’s super effective: 

Optimus pleads with Spike X to calm down, but Spike X straight up pulls MEGATRON IN GUN MODE out of his sub-space and shoots Optimus directly in the faceplate. Damn! 

The Seekers and Soundwave drop in, and start rapid firing on all the Autobots present. 

We get some great shots of Megatron in his gun alt-mode as he tries to convince Spike X to keep attacking. Optimus and Bumblebee hide behind cover, attempting to bring Spike X to his senses long enough to disarm him. 

Suddenly, Wheeljack and Sparkplug roll up; Sparkplug attempts to talk some sense into Spike, too. 

Optimus and Bumblebee are at a loss; If they take out Spike X, the damage might take him out for good. 

However, Sparkplug fails in his efforts to talk to Spike X; He SHOOTS HIS DAD AND KNOCKS HIM OFF THE CLIFF. 

Can you imagine if they put an ad break here? lmao 

Luckily, he has like, a claw machine arm, and he catches his dad before he becomes a human smoothie. 

This shocks Spike X badly enough that while he still has Megatron in gun mode, he takes a few pot shots at the Seekers and the Decepticons decide it’s time to bounce, so Megatron bails too. 

He apologises for almost killing his dad, his dad is like hey no beef man, and it cuts to them in the hospital: 

Sparkplug takes his son’s body back to the Autobot base (that sounds worse than it is), and they prepare to transfer him back into his body. 

What’s extra funny here is that he nervously laughs and says “Hope you fixed this thing up good, Ratchet!” And Ratchet says absolutely nothing. Not a word. 

It’s a success! Dad and son hug, totally not even addressing anything that happened this whole episode, because that’s a job for a therapist. 

Ratchet, who continues to not really care about any of this, tells Wheeljack “You know, I could probably repair that mess, but I think it’s best that I don’t.” (This is a play on what Wheeljack said earlier in the episode when he offered to help Sparkplug fix up Autobot X to begin with.) 

I love how tired Wheeljack looks. LOL

Spike, now recovered, leaves us with a great question to close out the episode: “I wonder what it’d be like for a robot mind to be transferred... to a human!” 

Depending on what kind of kid you were, his question was either imagination fuel for fun humanformer ideas, or was a blatantly bad question indicating he learned nothing and providing nightmare fuel trying to imagine one of the Autobots losing their shit in a human body the same way Spike lost his shit while inhabiting Autobot X. 

Anyway, great episode! 10/10 Scary, funny, creepy, Starscream got shot in the ass by a teenager. 

[plaidbooks]

I’m Okay

A/N: This was a concept I’ve had in my head for a little. I just...I really wanted a fluffy Carisi piece. Though, this is definitely more angst with a happy ending. I don’t know what it is about Carisi, but I always seem to write him into angsty things (though, I also just seem to write mostly angst with happy endings idk man).

Tags: domestic violence mention, rape mention, car crashes, blood mention

Words: 2k

You stood next to Carisi and Olivia as you all listened in on the interview Rollins and Fin were conducting on the latest scumbag you and Carisi had dragged in, Trevor Oaks. His wife—who you were hoping would be his soon ex—came in earlier in the day, crying, hand on her quickly blackening eye. Her husband had a temper, one that came out soon after the wedding. But now, he had crossed the line, taking his aggression out on her instead of just the wall or a vase. Though, it wasn’t until Amy Oaks had sat down with Lieutenant Benson that she realized with horror that this wasn’t the first time; that when he would get angry and force her to the bedroom, that even if she was his wife, that it was still rape.

You scrunched your nose up in disgust as Fin and Rollins grilled Trevor, trying to bring out that violent side of him that you all knew existed. But the man simply smirked, asking for his lawyer. Obviously frustrated, the detectives got up and left the interview room.

“He’ll make bail in no time,” Olivia muttered to the glass, glaring at the bastard. It was true; he was a trust-fund baby, riding on the millions made by his father.

“Want us to sit on Amy at the hotel?” Carisi asked. You and your partner were already charged with moving her from the precinct, where she was hidden in Liv’s office, to the hotel, well away from her husband until his trial. You really didn’t mind Carisi volunteering you both to watch her, either; in the months you’ve been working together, you had developed a crush on him. Spending more time stuck in a small, confined car, telling stories about your families, past cases from past departments, and embarrassing snippets of your childhoods was one of your favorite things to do. Something about the way Carisi’s bright blue eyes crinkled when he laughed at something you said warmed your whole being.

“Just for tonight; unis can take over in the morning,” Olivia replied, giving a small smile of thanks before dissolving back into the tired, professional demeanor she always carried at work.

You nodded and headed to your desk, grabbing your coat and things, Carisi right behind you.

“Hey, sorry for volunteering ya for this,” he said, but the smirk he had showed that he wasn’t really sorry. He knew you didn’t mind, not really—the job, the victims always came first. It’s one of the reasons you two worked so well together.

“Yeah, yeah. You can make it up to me by buying the first round of coffee,” you joked, grinning right back at him. He grabbed his jacket and keys, then followed you to Liv’s office. Making sure the coast was clear, you and Carisi were on either side of Amy Oaks as you led her from Liv’s office to Carisi’s squad car, tucking her behind the driver’s seat. You climbed in the front seat, and Carisi took the wheel. The sun was already setting in the city, casting the sky into beautiful pinks and oranges.

The hotel that Amy was assigned to was across the city, and the rush hour traffic from the end of the workday meant that the sky was dark before you made it halfway to the hotel.

“So, Trevor won’t be able to find me tonight?” Amy asked in a small voice, a sob threatening to break from her throat.

You turned in your seat to give her a reassuring smile. “He’s in jail for the night; the bail office is closed. Besides, Detective Carisi and I will be stationed right outside your room, just in case. You’re in good hands.”

She nodded slowly, relaxing her shoulders slightly. You turned back around, eyes catching Carisi’s as he chanced a glance over at you, a smile tugging the corner of his lips. Then his eyes were back on the road, and he readjusted his grip on the steering wheel.

“Ya know, [Y/N], there’s somethin’ I wanted to talk to ya about…” he started, trailing off. His voice sounded a little nervous, and you cocked your head, brow furrowed.

“What’s on your mind, Carisi—” you were cut off by an impact slamming into the side of the car, the loud, grinding sound of metal on metal filling the space around you. You felt the seatbelt tighten painfully against your chest, your head whipping to the side before everything went dark.

 ******************************

Carisi felt the impact on the passenger side, felt himself lose control of his car. It skidded down the street before it finally came to a stop, the horrible sound of metal scraping still fresh in his ears. He had his eyes squeezed shut, his hands death-gripping the wheel as instincts took over and he just held on. It took him a few moments to realize that the car had stopped. Suddenly fearing another impact, Carisi ripped his eyes open, trying to take in the scene in front of him, gauging what the hell was happening. The windshield was gone, in fragments on the hood and in his lap. Slowly, he unbuckled his seatbelt and opened his door, staggering out of the seat. He looked to the SUV that had hit him, but the driver was long gone; the driver’s door was wide open. In the distance, he could hear sirens already.

Remembering his job, Carisi stumbled to the door behind his own, throwing it open. Amy was dazed, blood leaking from her temple and a split lip, but she was very much alive.

“What—what happened?” she mumbled, not quite lucid. She probably had a concussion, Carisi thought grimly, frowning. He pulled the pocket square from his jacket and put it in her hand. He then took her hand and guided it to where the blood was leaking from her head. Carisi vaguely noticed that the side of his own face felt sticky, but he could deal with that later.

“Hey, [Y/N], you okay?” he asked, looking at your still-seated form in the front seat. You didn’t respond and his stomach dropped. “[Y/N]?” He leaned over Amy’s body, careful not to touch her in case she was more injured than she seemed and rested a hand on your shoulder. He shook you gently, but still there was no response, your head lolling to the side. Carisi could feel his hands starting to shake as he pulled back out of the car, hurrying around to your side of the car on wobbly legs. But the SUV had made contact directly with your door, denting the metal inward. He knew it was futile but that didn’t stop him from gripping the twisted handle and pulling on it with all his might. Panic gripped him, making bile rise in his throat as he flung himself on the hood of the car, avoiding the sharp points of metal as best he could. He reached through the missing windshield, checking to see if you had a pulse, unable to even consider the fact that you may not. He let out a strangled sob as he found a faint heartbeat there, your breathing coming in rasps.

It took everything in him to not pull you out of the wreckage, to wait for the ambulance to get there. But he waited on the hood of the car until the paramedics dragged him away, sitting him on the back of an ambulance, checking the cut on his temple, the smaller cuts on his face from the glass. He had a mild concussion but was wholly unharmed. Amy was much the same; minor cuts and bruises, a concussion, and a transportation to the hospital to make sure there was nothing internally damaged. Rollins had been the first officer on the scene, but Carisi asked her to ride with Amy—he may have failed to protect her, but that didn’t mean SVU couldn’t pick up his slack.

So, he sat in silence as he watched the paramedics attempted to dislodge you from the driver’s side of the car. But the metal had pinned your legs, making it impossible to pull you from the wreckage. That’s when the jaws of life made an appearance, and they began cutting their way through the door. Carisi felt the hot trails his tears made down his cheeks as they left his eyes, but he couldn’t stop them, didn’t even try. He just clutched the shock blanket that the paramedics draped over him tighter. This was all his fault, anyways; he should’ve seen the SUV coming, should’ve been paying more attention. Guilt ripped through him as he watched with morbid fascination as the paramedics slowly made their way to you. It seemed like they were going so slow; he was starting to think that there was a chance you might not make it, that you may bleed out, that you may—

“Carisi, what happened?” Olivia’s voice cut through his thoughts. He jumped, not noticing his Lieutenant’s presence.

“I-I’m sorry, Lieu. I didn’t…the SUV came outta nowhere…I shoulda—”

“It’s not your fault, Carisi.” She took a deep breath, surveying the scene. Her eyes froze on the paramedics cutting through the door, but from this angle, she couldn’t make out who was in the front seat. “Where’s Amy Oaks? And [Y/L/N]?”

Carisi let out a shuddering breath. “Amy’s in the hospital—Rollins is with her. She’s shaken up but fine. [Y/N] is—is…” he trailed off, looking back at the wreckage. Olivia gave him one last look, patted his arm, then rushed over to the car. The paramedics had finally made it through the door and cut the seatbelt away from your limp body. Fresh tears spilled over Carisi’s face as he watched them gently, carefully, lift your lifeless body out of the passenger’s seat and onto a gurney, before loading you into an ambulance and driving away.

Olivia talked with some of the remaining paramedics before she rushed back over to Carisi. “Lieu, is she—is she…?”

“She’s alive Carisi; let’s go,” Liv ordered. He didn’t need to be told twice; he was up and following Olivia on weak legs to her car. She flipped on her lights and sped after the ambulance.

 *********************************

Carisi felt like a spirit walking the halls of the hospital. At first, he was in the waiting room lobby; you were in surgery when you had first arrived. You got a punctured lung from the car accident, not to mention all the various cuts and bruises. You were actually very lucky that that was all you walked away with. But still, Carisi didn’t think of it was lucky. You would’ve been luckier if he didn’t open his stupid mouth, if he didn’t offer to watch Amy Oaks that night—he ignored the fact that you both would’ve still given her a ride to the hotel.

After sitting idly for about 30 minutes, his Catholic guilt was eating him alive. So, instead of spending another moment alone with his thoughts, he went in search of a cathedral in the hospital, if they had one in this specific hospital. Turned out that they did have one; ground floor and tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the doctors, nurses, orderlies, patients, and families that roamed the halls.

Carisi had found the cathedral quickly enough and spent an hour in there, reciting every prayer he could remember to help you through this, to keep you alive. And to assuage at least some of his guilt. But it did little to help there. Instead, it was more of a private place to let some more tears shed, tears that he didn’t want to explain to his Lieutenant. He was pretty sure that she had written it off as simple guilt, and she was partly right. But only partly. The truth was that Carisi didn’t want to lose you; from the moment you had walked into the squad room, he had been 100% completely smitten by you. And now, he had put you in the hospital.

He made his way back to the waiting room lobby and plopped down next to Olivia, who have his knee a reassuring squeeze. “She’s going to be fine, Carisi,” she muttered. He simply nodded, willing himself to not start sobbing again.

He lost track of time before the doctor came out and announced that you would be fine, that you would make a full recovery. Carisi released a breath he didn’t know he had been holding.

 ******************************

Your eyes fluttered as you slowly opened them. You noticed instantly that you were in a hospital room; the white walls and sheets catching your eyes, the soft lighting showing that it was late in the evening, the soft hum of machinery filling the silence of the room. But there was another noise, too. Looking around you found the source quickly. Next to your bed was a visitor’s chair, Detective Carisi sitting in it, his top half bent over your bed. His head was nestled by your knees, one arm under his cheek, his other hand laying next to yours, his fingers barely brushing your skin. His eyes were closed, his mouth slightly ajar with a thin line of drool in the corner of his mouth. The sound you had heard was his soft snores. Your heart melted at the sight, even if your stomach clenched at the numerous cuts on his face and arms, and the redness around his eyes. As much as you wanted to let him sleep, you knew that his back must be killing him from this position, and he was probably worried half to death.

“Sonny,” you called softly, lightly touching his hand with yours. His eyes flew open and he groaned as he sat up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Are you okay, Sonny?” you asked, smiling at his half-asleep look, his eyes still bleary. You noticed the bandage on his temple, but it was white, so the bleeding was stopped.

He blinked a couple times. “Me? Of course, I’m okay. Are you okay?” He rubbed at his eyes, trying to see straight.

You took mental stock of your body; you had a dull pain in your chest and a small headache, but mostly you just felt the drowsiness of the medication you were surely on. You thought back to what happened; the car ride to the hotel, making sure Amy Oaks was alright, the car crash— “Yeah…I’m fine. Amy?”

“She’s fine; Rollins and Fin are watching her,” he paused, brow furrowed, unable to meet your eyes. “[Y/N], I am so, so sorry about this. I shoulda—”

“Carisi,” you cut him off, raising your hand to stop him. “Unless you’re about to tell me that you intentionally got hit by that other car, then I don’t want to hear it.”

“But—”

“No buts,” your eyes softened as he finally looked at you. He looked so…sad, defeated. “Sonny, it’s not your fault. It’s called a car accident for a reason.”

He nodded. “I know, it’s just…I almost—” his voice started to break, tears in his eyes, making them brighter blue, “I almost lost you.”

Tears were now forming in your eyes, and you reached for his hand. He took yours, laying them on the bed, fingers interlacing. “I’m right here, Sonny. I’m okay. I’m not going anywhere.”

“I—I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you today. [Y/N], I love you—I love you so much, and seeing the paramedics taking you out of the car—” his voice hitched and the tears really started to fall now.

Your heart fluttered in your chest. “I—I love you, too, Sonny. Come here.” You scooted over on the bed, as much as you could. He furrowed his brow and cocked his head. “Come here,” you said again, pulling the hand you were still holding.

He smiled softly before he carefully climbed into the bed next to you. You curled up next to him, burying your face in his chest and breathing in his familiar scent. Carisi wrapped his arms gently around you, pulling you protectively against him, placing soft kisses on the top of your head. He whispered how much he loved you until you fell asleep in his embrace.

[babybatscreationsv2]

Hi! Idk if ur still doing ace prompts, but ace stephen with spiderstrange please!

I am always down for ace prompts!

Warning for some mild sexual content

Stephen had never been made to feel cowardly before, yet here he was, a coward. He and Peter had been in a romantic relationship for many months now. They shared something wonderful, something beautiful, something that made Stephen feel warm and loved and respected in a way that he didn't know he needed until he had it. The only issue was honesty. Because as much as Stephen loved Peter, he didn't desire a sexual relationship and Peter very clearly did.

When they kissed, Peter pressed against him, his hard length against Stephen's thigh. His hands slid down Stephen's chest and back up his thighs. And Stephen did nothing in response. He felt nothing. Well, every now and then his body would respond to those touches, but his head wandered to thoughts of magic texts or that tricky brain surgery he had performed some years ago that still pricked his curiosity. And Peter always noticed. He always sighed and pulled away. He would force a smile and they would go back to their movie or dinner or crawl into bed. It was never Stephen's intention to make Peter feel unwanted, but it was clear that was exactly what he had done. If he didn't do something soon, Peter would leave.

What if he told him the truth and Peter left anyway?

Coward, he thought.

He was practically holding the man hostage in that case. Leading him on and leaving him hanging. He had to talk to him. Peter deserved to know even if it went poorly.

He waited until things were quiet. They had just finished brunch, sitting at the kitchen island. It was a calm day, no upcoming plans. Plenty of time to talk.

"Peter-" he started.

"Do you not want me?" Peter cut him off. He turned in his seat to face him. He looked so angry, so hurt. Stephen couldn't meet his eye.

"It's not that," his throat grew thick. He felt Peter's posture change. A little less hurt and a little more concerned. Stephen wasn't a man who's voice broke or who found it difficult to speak. He was blunt and honest and Peter's intuition was incredible enough to realize all of this with a single sentence. 

"Something's wrong isn't it?" He put his hand on Stephen's arm. "You can talk to me."

"I uh..." He felt like he wanted to cry. He wasn't a man that cried often either. Why did he feel so vulnerable?

"Is it me? I mean are you... are you straight?"

Stephen laughed, startled. Poor Peter didn't look any more assured, but it certainly made Stephen feel a little better. "No, definitely not. Well not exactly no- well it's... it's complicated," he babbled.

"Please, Stephen. Don't make me keep guessing."

He took a breath. Then he looked at Peter. His Peter who loved him terribly much. Peter who had fought and nearly died for him plenty of times. "I'm asexual," he said.

"Oh." Peter looked at him, words sinking in. "So it's not me then?"

"No, Peter. Not at all."

"And you want to be with me?"

"Very much. I can't imagine anyone else in my life."

"You just don't want to have sex?"

"It's sort of complicated." Stephen rubbed a hand along his jaw. "I'm not terribly interested in sex and I get a bit distracted by all of the things I would rather be doing."

Peter blinked at him, listening and not fully comprehending.

"The only thing that truly disgusts me is penetration. The only time I want to be inside someone is while performing a heart transplant."

Peter snorted. He tried to hold it in and failed, bursting into laughter so strong he doubled over.

"So," he wheezed. "When I'm trying to get you into bed, you're thinking about heart surgery?"

Stephen smiled. "Sometimes I think about object teleportation." He waited for Peter to settle before he continued more seriously. "I love you very much, Peter. I'm willing to give you whatever it is that you need."

Peter shook his head. "I don't ever want you to do anything you don't want to."

"Thank you, Peter."

He smiled. His hand reached for Stephen's. "I love you. I'm more than happy with what we have."

Stephen wasn't so sure as they continued on. Peter seemed happier than before as days passed, but Stephen still doubted himself. Then he caught Peter masturbating in their bed.

Peter hid himself under the covers, face turing tomato red. Stephen averted his gaze, though he stood frozen in the doorway. "I- I'm sorry, I'll just uh..."

"No, it's okay, I shouldn't have been doing that in the bed. I mean its your bed, too. Of course you would come in here to lay down," Peter rambled.

"No, Peter. You should be able to take care of yourself whenever you need to. I just didn't mean to interrupt," Stephen said. They both stood, staring at each other, each trying to figure the other out.

"Do you uh," Peter chewed his lip. "Do you want the bed?"

"I was going to do some reading, but I can sit out in the living room."

"No, I'll just go to the bathroom then."

"No, Peter really, stay."

"But-"

They both stopped. Stephen realized then that they were both trying to hard to accommodate each other when there was truly no need.

"What if we both stay? You can do whatever you're doing and I'll read my book and we'll both just, do our own thing?"

Peter settled back into the bed. "You sure you're not grossed out?"

"You don't gross me out, Peter."

"You're welcome to stay if you're comfortable then."

Stephen settled into his side of the bed. He turned on the lamp and picked up his book. Peter went back to his business. Stephen found that he quite liked the little sounds that he made. It was cute. He sort of whimpered and he breathed too heavy and he looked pretty with his eyes fluttering closed and his cheeks pink. He could see what would be appealing about watching a person like this. Stephen was no virgin, but it was easier to appreciate a person in the throes of pleasure when he didn't feel obligated to be directly involved. Which was nice because Peter made nice sounds when he climaxed.

Stephen smiled to himself. Then he leaned over and kissed Peter's forehead. Peter laughed.

"You really just watched me get off and you're still not interested?"

Stephen shrugged. "You're lovely to look at, but no." Peter smiled. "What?"

"This is kind of nice, actually. Except, I'm all gross now."

"Go and clean up and I'll be here to hold you when you're done."

"Sounds perfect."

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “From Heaven or from Hell.”

Ok so I had a ton of trouble writing today for some reason. IDK why but here you go :) as expected. 

The Kree popped the last socket from the wall, pulling the device down for a closer examination. Admiral Vir stayed back in shock. He thought all of the kree were dead, but this one , it looked more than alive enough to him, though it did occur to him that this kree was neither voiced or voiceless. He had only ever seen something like it on a battlefield over two years ago, and they hadn’t gotten close enough to examine them in a medical capacity.

Was it possible that Dr. Krill and the others had been fooled.

If that was the case, these guys had done a phenomenal job at playing dead. Nothing was supposed to get past Dr. Krill, but he supposed there was a first for everything.

He knelt in the darkness wondering what he was going to do.

He could leap out and capture this creature, in one on one combat the Kree were no match for a human, the only reason they had been such a problem was because they were armed and could fly the last time he met with them.

But this one, it was just a skinny bird creature with twig legs, and no wings, but if he followed it, he might be able to find the others. 

He melted a little further back into the shadows, as much as he could with skin and hair that might as well have glowed in the ambient light. Too bad he had forgotten his ninja costume, that would have really helped right about now.

The kree turned and with a small chirp to itself, it began moving up the hallway.

He followed after at a distance feeling for once like the hunter instead of the hunted. 

He bared his teeth in half pleasure.

The feeling was sort of exhilarating.

He was the monster in the dark, the dangerous creature lurking in the shadows. He was the one stalking in the darkness just out of sight. Human’s hand had to hunt things in close proximity like this for thousands of years, and most creatures on their home planet were way to fast, strong, or agile for him to be able to do anything.

But in comparison to this Kree, he was a wolf, or a mountain lion. He would have radioed for assistance, but he was worried that his voice or the light from his implant would alert the creature, and he wouldn’t want that, so instead he kept very silent and well back as he followed the creature though the ship watching as it plucked equipment form the walls and stowed it in a bag. On one or two occasions, they came across one of the engineers working to fix the problem, but when that happened, they quickly slipped in another direction.

They were heading down, towards the docking bay forced to dodge more and more people as they moved, but they managed to make it.  And once they reached the docking bay, he was more than surprised to be led back behind the alien ship, to where someone had cut a near invisible vertical slit in the plastic which surrounded it.

The little creature slipped through and vanished inside the ship. 

He stayed outside, crouched low. This would probably be a good time let someone know where he was, but when he went to do so, he was surprised to find that bridge communications had been shut down.

The little bastards must have done something to it.

Oh well, than he was going to have to think up something else.

IT was best to know what he had to work with before actually making a move. So he inched forward quietly scooting through the plastic barrier and up towards the ship. He kept in a low crouch as he slipped up the open ramp and into the darkness. His infrared eye helped to pick up anything that might give him away as he moved through the darkness.

The ship was small, so it didn’t take him long to make it back to the bay where the bodies had been found, and when he did, he was both surprised, and not particularly surprised to see what he saw.

A gathering of Kree sat in a circle in the middle of the floor. Together they were comparing parts they had looted rom the ship, warbling i their strange kree language, and with laughter about what they had done.

Listening to them talk, he felt his lips pull tight in annoyance his hands balling into fists.

Pirates. 

They thought they had duped the humans,

Turned them into chumps as they robbed them blind right out from under their noses. 

It was a smart enough plan, but there was one thing that none of them had accounted for.

The fact that a human might be listening in.

Anger welled up inside his chest.

These creatures were trying to make him and his crew look like fools, but he wasn’t going to let that happen. He was going to stop this, but….. Before he did that, he was also going to give them a piece of their own medicine.

And with that thought, he slunk back into the darkness.

***

The Kree sat around in a circle laughing to themselves. The humans were so stupid.

Even their doctors hadn’t managed to catch the kree, with their ability to shut down their bodies into a mild state of coma, which approached death in appearance. In this state their internal organs barely functioned, and their cortical zones almost completely shut off.

It used to be something they could only do under certain circumstances, but after one of their scientists had done a little experimenting, he had discovered the place in the brain that was responsible for the shut off, and managed to implant manual switches for the ability.

Originally no one had thought that would be useful in any sort of way but they were quickly proven wrong, or at least the pirates had proven it wrong.

“This doesn't explain how we are going to get out of this place when we are finally done.”

Their leader scoffed, “We have full control of their ship, I am sure we can find a way to open the airlock.”

“And what if we are found out?”

“By who.” he retorted, “The have no reason to suspect us. It is more likely they will turn to one of their own crew members being a sabotage than suspecting us. I mean, what is the logical conclusion, that one of their  own is doing it or the creatures in the cold room have risen from the dead to steal their things.” He looked around at the others, “See, it makes sense doesn't it.”

They were just about to begin nodding their agreement to him, when a sound reaches them from down the dark hallway.

The sound of claws being pulled over metal.

They all grew very still staring at the entrance to the dark.

“What was that?” Someone whispered.

“I am sure it was nothing.”

There was silence for a few moments as they went back to their conversation.

They were cut off as a rattling noise broke out behind them in the darkness on the other side.

Together they turned in fear, eyes wide as they stared into the abyss.

The scraping sound continued almost melodic in nature.

Silence.

“Go check it out.” Their leader ordered pointing towards the most junior member of the party, They tried to argue but there was n ouse  in trying, and they were shoved into the darkness. Arms held protectively before it’s body knees weak, it ventured into the darkness and towards the scraping sound.

It was close, probably around the corner from it when the sound stopped very suddenly filling the little ship with an oppressive silence.

It turned its head this way and that unable to see in the near darkness.

It scrambled around in it’s toolkit trying to find the light.

Finally it found it, the cold metal reassuring against it’s hand as it flipped on the little beam of light.

Directly into a pair of milky eyes and glistening sharp teeth.

The others heard nothing.

“Find anything!” They called after it, but there was no answer 

“Not funny!”

Still no answer.

The scratching sound started up again on their other side.

THey turned in fear, huddling together in the middle of the room. W-what is that.

A sudden rush of movement to the darkness at their right. They spun, but it was already gone.

Staring into the darkness, it seemed as if something they couldn’t see was just right outside their vision

Someone flicked on a light into the darkness and caught the flash of two white orbs before the movement scuttled back into darkness.

“We have to get out.” Their leader ordered huddling them together and then backing away into the darkness of the opposite hall If the creature was over there, than they were going to be plenty safe here, together in a group with their flashlights turned on waving about in all directions.

One of their number began to scream, and they turned just in time to see the flailing counterpart pulled violently into the darkness, a pale white hand gripped about their leg.

They weren't trying to be quiet anymore, simply screaming as they fled, picked off one by one.

Their leader was the last left, nearly making it outside before his flashlight came upon a figure blocking him. In the eerie light of the darkness, its skin was washed out and pale, its clothing pale as well, when the flashlight beam moved up it passed over pale hair.

The face grinned as the flashlight passed over its eyes.

A flash of blue, and it was over.

***

The crew heard the screaming almost as soon as it had started, but it took them a few minutes to gather their gear before running in. By the time they made it everything had gone silent. A group of marines stepped through the plastic just in time to see admiral Vir walking down from the ramp dusting his hands off and looking quite pleased with himself.

“Sir…. what’s going on.”

“Oh just fixing a little problem, nothing to worry about.”

“And what was the problem.” 

The man grinned one of his green eyes flashing, “Pirates.”

When no one understood where he was going with this, the man simply grinned again, “Pirates. Turns out that the Kree were just playing dead to get aboard our ship and steal our shit.”

They stared at him incredulously, “What.”

“You heard me.”

They shook their head sin surprise, but followed him as he motioned them onward, “here, come take a look.”

Not that they doubted their Admiral, but they still found it shocking when they discovered the Kree hogtied and incapacitated around their own ship. The Admiral had a look of smug satisfaction on his face.

“That should be all of them-”

That is until they came upon another group of Kree 

He paused in his tracks staring down at the unconscious bodies, “What the-”

“Good work, Admiral.”

THe man scratched his head, “I…. I didn’t do this….”

“It was dark, you probably did and it just doesn't look familiar.”

He went very quiet for a moment before nodding his head. “I uh, sure I guess.”  

He handed off the stolen parts to he engineering crew uncharacteristically quiet

“Admiral, is your arm alright.”

“Yeay, yeah…. Just a…. misunderstanding .”

They looked after him in confusion as he walked away.

A misunderstanding.

***

Maverick was sitting in the half darkness of the ship chapel. A single light was on above the lectern, and she read by the dim lighting eyes scanning over passages of familiar words.

She wasn’t alone of course.

The Burg sat across the room, his wings folded easily behind his back as he perused through her collection of religious books. At first she thought that she wouldn’t like having a burg aboard, and had tried very hard not to show her unease around him, but he had proven himself to be affable, intelligent, kind, and very very helpful.

A lot of the crew didn’t understand that about him just yet, and so she had made it her mission to be his friend even if no one else would.

She hoped that he would appreciate the effort, and it seemed to be paying off.

It was just then that the door at the end of the room opened.

She lifted her head expecting one of the night shift crew to come in for a visit, but instead watched as Adam stepped inside and let the door hiss shut softly behind him. He had a thoughtful, and almost concerned look on his face as he approached, and she stood marking her page and setting her book aside as he walked up.

She was about to open her mouth to ask him if there was anything she could do, but he cut her off and spoke first.

Blurting out, “Do you believe in guardian angels.”

She paused in her tracks surprised at the question. Across the room, the burg lifted his head and also closed the book very slowly.

She was too stunned to speak for a moment as the burg scuttled over wings whispering lightly as they were tugged by air.

“Guardian angels.” She repeated, still not entirely sure what to make of it.

The Burg stopped beside them, “Guardian angel?” He wondered 

Maverick turned to look at him, “A divine being sent down from heaven in order to protect one of the living. Some say they are angels, others think they are dead family members, some have even gone as far as to assume dead pets, but generally an entity sent down from heaven to help someone whose work is not yet done.”

The man shuffled his feet, ‘And in that same vein, do you believe people can be…. haunted .”

That caught her off guard again as well.

The Burg looked at them for explanation, and the Admiral explained this time, “Like an angel accept an unholy being sent from hell maybe?”

She crossed her arms over her chest as he stood watching her, “Why the sudden interest.”

He looked at her and then sighed before sitting down, “If I tell you, promise you won’t call me crazy?”\

The expression on his face told her that he wasn’t joking, and she walked over to sit next to him, “Go on.”

“You remember the civilian transport.”

She shivered, “how could I forget. Never in my life have I entered a place that was corrupt and tainted in my life.” She shivered, ‘And I have been into some pretty dark places in my time.”

He nodded his head, “And you remember captain Everett?”

“The cannibal… the guy you had to kill? “

He nodded his head 

“Ok?”

“Well, ever since then, I have been…. Seeing him around. There have been times where he has been so real, it was like he could touch me. I would see him in mirrors and as a chill breeze….” He shivered again, “So I sort of assumed… based on the fact that I seem to have been followed from a tainted ship, that he manifests in the cold, and that I see him in mirrors that it was… well that it was a bad thing. At first I thought I was crazy, and then I thought it was a ghost.” 

“But-”She ventured 

“But then today I saw him again, and he seems to be helping me. Leading me in the right direction, assisting me, but in really really creepy ways.” He lifted his eyes, “What am I dealing with here? Am I crazy, is it a ghost, is it something more. I don’t know what to think.”

Maverick looked at him with a critical expression before slowly resting a hand on his shoulder, “Do you know why I joined the marines.”

He shook his head.

She sighed, “I don’t tell this to many people. I think Ramirez knows but other than that I don’t like to share, but on earth isn’t safe for me.”

He looked at her confused.

“I have had too many experiences with what you describe, and not all of them are good.” She looked around at the room, “I don’t claim to be an expert by all means, and I cannot be certain, but I think if it was bad you would know quite definitely…. Has it ever tried to harm you, to convince you to do things that you think are wrong?”

He paused and shook his head, “No… i, I guess not.”

“Than I don’t think you have to worry, but if you are still concerned, I would talk to Dr. Adric. Maybe he can help you.”

***

I don’t know what you are or what you want, but as long as you don’t hurt me, I won’t get rid of you. 

[taelme]

Friends-to-lovers!Mark

genre: friends-to-lovers!au, (fluff, angst, mutual pining lol might seem like slow burn) 

pairing/s : Mark / Reader, the dreamies all appear in this!! 

word count: 12k+ 

tw:  mild language, bullying :( but nothing too major im too weak to write that shit HAHHA 

a/n: this was a rly cute concept I always wanted to write,,, like a older brother figure best friend mark and it takes place in a church camp!! but you can just ignore that and pretend its a normal camp if you're not like religious I guess u know idk I hope u guys like this!! it was rly fun to write smth with all the dreamies :( gif creds to original poster

Stepping into the hall of the camp, you took in a deep breath of the air through your thin mask, the only thing you could smell being the stale material of the mask mixed with the warmth of the air you breathed out. Your eyes wandering around the room before landing on the familiar head of light brown hair. Lugging your duffel bag and sleeping bag over to where the boy was, you greeted, “Hi,” tone sounding too tired for his liking.

Looking up from his phone, he shot you a displeased look, his nostrils flaring slightly with the deep breath he took in as a prelude to the sigh you knew he was about to give you. “Took you long enough. What’s with the mask?”

“Mom told me she wouldn’t let me leave the house without it, says I’ll spread my germs to you guys,” you drawled with evident disbelief.

Donghyuck’s heart shaped lips curve into a smirk, “Strange, that’s never stopped you before, though.”

You shrugged, running a hand through your hair absentmindedly, eyes simultaneously searching the room for where Mark was and it didn’t take Donghyuck very long to catch onto what you were doing. 

“Dunno, I mean, it’s Mark’s first time as a camp coordinator. I wouldn’t want him having to deal with a whole flu breakout here..” you trailed off  

Donghyuck cooed sarcastically at your statement, “how disgustingly thoughtful of you. So, basically, what you’re trying to say is that you’re doing this to make life easier for your boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” you protested, earning an eye roll from Donghyuck- and a rather long one at that.

“I call bullshit!” You heard another voice pipe in and soon enough you could place a face to the voice when you saw Renjun take a seat next to Donghyuck, half-turning to Donghyuck to mutter, “I heard the word boyfriend and assumed she was denying her love for Mark again.”

You gasped, doing your best to look offended as you watched open-mouthed as Donghyuck shook hands with Renjun in approval, “Absolutely correct.”

You heard a shout of your name, turning your head to find the direction of the noise when you saw a navy blue sweater clad Mark, landyard round his neck, jogging towards you with a lazy smile on his face, his brown hair ruffled messily making him exude a certain boyish charm.

“Hey, I’ve been looking everywhere for-” his smile curved downwards into a frown upon noticing the mask you were wearing on your face. “You still sick?”

You nodded, “It’s weird, I feel like I’m fully recovered but felt like I should put this on just in case.”

Donghyuck and Renjun took that as a cue to proceed with their own individual conversation and leave you two to converse after Mark’s lack of an acknowledgment towards their presence.

Mark nodded slowly, his lips pressed into a thin line like how they did whenever he was thinking. He wouldn’t say, but he knew the mask would be gone before the day ended since you never liked the feeling of it covering your face; also because he was familiar with how much you loved your reactions to be unrestricted.

“Oh, right, I remembered what I was gonna ask you. D’you mind helping with bag checks later? There are really few girl helpers here now since most of them told me they’d be showing up later,” he shot you a pleading pout.

You whined in reluctance but nodded nonetheless. “Mark, you know how much I hate that,” you put on your best glare in the hopes it would dissuade him.

Jutting out his lower lip and batting his eyelashes profusely at you in response, you were prompted to continue, “It’s always so hard to be patient with them when they’re always rolling their eyes at me and giving me attitude for confiscating their phones.”

“That’s why I’d rather you do it, ‘cause if they had a problem with you, I know you’d just give them attitude too, also because I’d make sure no one gives you any trouble if I can help it.”

You scoffed at his snickering, trying your best to ignore the way his nose scrunch tempted you to reach your hands out and pinch his cheeks. The both of you walked over to the tables they had set up for bag checks, Mark following close beside you.

“You say it like you wouldn’t do that if it was another girl helper,” you accused him with a teasing lilt in your tone, seeing Mark shrug casually yet not making any move to deny your accusation.

“Well, just that if it was you half the work would already be done for me,” he winked, making you gasp, whacking him on the arm.

“Can’t believe my best friend is making things easier for himself at the expense of my emotional state.”

Mark rolled his eyes at your dramatic sigh, a soft smile never faltering as he spoke, “oh, shut up, you know I love you.”

You couldn’t help but hear that as nothing but platonic, hoping Mark couldn't hear the hitch in your breath, shrugging as nonchalantly as you could, “of course.”

You were friends with Mark ever since he transferred schools and moved into your neighbourhood, occupying the house just directly opposite yours. All it took was a single dinner invite to his family and the two of you shared an immediate bond over a friendly dance battle on the wii console. ( Till today you'd like to remember it as a victory for you since Mark's flailing limbs didn't help him very much in moving along to Lady Gaga ).

From then on, you never felt like him being 2 years older than you prevented you from getting closer - hell, you barely even believed it - with his constant presence near you, be it in school and out of school, cheering you on at your drama performances and vice versa at his band performances and basketball games. You weren’t sure when it started being an unspoken thing that if you were somewhere, there he would be as well.

But that was never awkward till you entered your teen years, Mark's changed physique gaining him more attention from girls, whereas your beauty grew more and more each day ( well at least it did to Mark ) and there was an unspoken knowledge that the both of you knew that your feelings for each other could start to wobble over the line separating platonic and romantic, but neither of you ever brought it up. You always just brushed off Mark's habits of buying you your favourite melon milk before school or saving you a seat at his table with his group of friends as all part of his duty as your 'older brother' best friend figure.

While you were busy fumbling around to setup a table for bag checks, Mark was fumbling as well in the pantry for his vitamin drink and preparing a thermos flask full of ginger tea for you to soothe your throat. Once he’d finished, he sounded the siren on the megaphone- after many minutes of ‘oh shit’s from pressing the wrong buttons on accident -signalling for everyone to gather as he strolled to the assembly hall, the corner of his lips quirking up ever so slightly at the sight of everyone already gathered and seated there upon his arrival.

“Sup- I mean uh…alright guys, thanks for being so fast in gathering," he began, silence ensuing in the hall other than the clean tapping of his shoes against the shiny wood floor, and hushed chatter from Donghyuck and Renjun, as he made his way towards where you sat in the circle, making as if wanting to seat himself next to you.

Not without an offended scoff, Renjun shifted his bum to the right to make space in between himself and you for Mark to sit down, the older boy holding the thermos flask in front of you with an expectant look.

"Ginger tea," he answered before you could even ask him what the flask contained, "make sure to finish it by lunchtime for your throat," he gave you a rather forced-looking close-lipped smile, unbeknownst to him that he was being watched by the entire service team, the only thing on his mind being to give you that and see to it that you fully recover.

"Thanks, Mark," you mumbled, grasping the flask tightly and lowering your head to avoid the stares you were receiving from the team, especially Donghyuck and Renjun who made their smugness a little too obvious.

He's just taking care of you as a little sister, you reminded yourself, desperately hoping your words would lessen the severity of the heat you felt on your cheeks.

Mark proceeded to run through the details of the camp programme, mentioning details of the day like wet games and whatnot. You would’ve remembered if you were actually paying any attention. The tip of his pink tongue would occasionally peek out to wet his lips as he spoke, his hand coming up to nudge his glasses up his nose bridge whenever he looked at his papers scattered on the floor.

You were starting to think it was a little ridiculous your heart rate could speed up watching him just sitting there, not doing anything particularly mind-blowing. Just sitting there being, well...Mark.

"Is that alright?" you snapped out of your trance when he glanced at you for approval of whatever he had been talking about for the past five minutes. You nodded mindlessly, shooting him a smile of reassurance.

"Yep, it's fine," you answered along with a few other murmurs from around the circle.

Mark sighed in relief, nodding as he stood up swiftly, clipping his pen to the string of the lanyard he’d slung across his chest.

"Campers are to be here in about fifteen minutes, everybody be on standby and mix around with your group till the time for the opening address I guess, I mean- yeah, just do that.” and just like that everyone slowly stood up in groups, dispersing around the hall. Mark held out a hand for you to take to help you off the ground just as you heard Donghyuck snort at something Renjun did, turning to you as his next target.

"Hey, Y/N. Try to get up without using your hands," your competitive nature got the better of you and you heaved yourself off the floor with just your legs, grinning proudly at Haechan, Mark’s hand withdrawing to his side quickly in the hopes no one saw what had just happened.

Mark winced as he felt Renjun slap him between the shoulder blades, his chuckle sounding all too obnoxious, "better luck next time, bro," as Mark flushed red, dismissing the blonde haired boy's teasing.

Mark huffed, not feeling bitter or anything, couldn’t help the endeared smile that appeared on his face at the way you cheered triumphantly at Donghyuck, who mussed up your hair as you simply grinned back at him, then at Mark. Mark’s breath almost hitched as you stared at him as if saying ‘did you see what I just did?’, and his smile stayed unwavering, shooting you a thumbs up because god, did he love you.

===

“Don’t you ever get tired of the pining?” Renjun prodded at Mark as the both of them made their way to the water coolers, the blonde haired boy twirling his bottle in the air with each throw.

“What?” Mark felt as if he hadn’t processed whatever Renjun had just said to him.

Renjun shot him a tired look, “Don’t act dumb, Mark. You know what I’m talking about.” Renjun was who Mark had first confided in when he realised that he had feelings for you, obviously earning a long lecture from the younger boy, who was very much insistent that Mark should do something about the way he felt before it was too late.

“Of course I do,” Mark muttered with a defeated tone, the muted whirring of the water cooler matching his sentiments.

“Then? Why aren’t you doing anything about it?”

“Ever heard of fear, dude? She’s like...my best friend, I can’t just like drop a bomb like that on her, it’s too risky.”

Renjun rolled his eyes, “And hopelessly pining for her every day is a better option?”

Mark’s mouth opened in protest, holding his now filled water bottle up in protest, “It’s not hopele-“

“I heard Jaemin’s gonna ask her out.” Renjun lied, making Mark fall silent as his eyes widened, speaking for themselves. Though it arguably wasn’t the best method, Renjun knew that someone like Mark would need a push like this if he wanted Mark to take action.

Mark’s jealousy was slowly creeping in, making its authority evident in his tone as he countered with a scoff, “I’d like to see how that turns out.”

“Well, you’re not exactly ‘Johnny Bravo’ yourself, dude. You gotta up your game! C’mon, you’ve got so many chances to do that in the next 3 days, might as well use them to your advantage,” Renjun karate chopped the metal railing for emphasis as they walked up the stairs. Though he was convincing, Mark wasn’t sure if Renjun would be the angel or devil on his shoulders in this situation, but whatever it was that he was trying to do certainly was doing its job in getting Mark riled up.

Walking back into the assembly hall, Mark spotted you chatting with your group members excitedly, the mask you were wearing in the morning now no longer covering your face- which Mark would never outrightly admit he was happy about.

“Remember what I said, dude. Don’t miss your chance,” Renjun’s words lingered in Mark’s mind, meandering around every other thought that occupied his head and slowly tainting each one with possible thoughts of how he was going to tell you about how he felt. Campers were almost fully gathered in the assembly hall now, with bag checks finished and opening address not due for another ten minutes but as Mark saw you spot him across the room and start to make your way to him, he felt his heart start to race- no, sprint -in his chest, threatening to burst.

“Babe! The tea you made me was amazing, I feel even better now,” you grinned at him, his heart at a loss, not knowing it was possible to flutter so hard until he heard the pet name bubble so casually from your lips, accompanied by your heart stopping ( well, for Mark definitely ) smile. Your hands flew up to cup his face, squishing his cheeks together with a giggle, the sound itself making Mark panic, his fist clenching but his finger accidentally knocking the button on the megaphone that sounded the siren, making you shout in surprise, squishing his cheeks even harder before letting go quicker than you imagined you could.

Donghyuck and Renjun, who were watching the scene from afar were busy laughing at the fact that you had managed to fluster Mark into sounding the siren, attracting the attention from the entire hall.

“Sorry, false alarm,” he spoke into the mic, not sounding apologetic at all, more preoccupied with how to make his ears not give away how he felt. What he didn't notice was that his cheeks were already wildly pink, both from embarrassment and the blood rushing back into them after that pressure from your hands.

“Are you cold? your ears are really red,” you laughed, playing with his ears absentmindedly as your wrist rested just against his collarbone, making him shove you away quickly in a desperate attempt to put at least some distance between the both of you.

“Excuse me, facilitator, aren’t you supposed to be getting to know your group now instead of bothering the person in charge?” he told you as authoritatively as he could in his panicked state, raising an eyebrow at you to which you scoffed.

“Power has changed you, Mark Lee,” you shook your head in mock disappointment, “won’t even let your best friend talk to you now that you’re all up there,” you used your hand to gesture high above you before you coughed, wiping away fake tears from your cheeks before sticking your tongue out at him when you realised it wasn’t making him budge.

“Get,” he shooed you away before taking his place at the front of the assembly hall, fiddling with his phone before he sat there idling away, trying to stop his gaze from wandering over to where you were with your group, the sound of your loud laughter attracting his attention whether he liked it or not, but soon Mark settled for subtly scanning the room so he could let his gaze linger on your group a little while longer before he resumed scanning the room like it was part of his role.

===

You shrieked upon the feeling of cold water rushing over your head, down your face, wetting your neck and travelling down the rest of your body. Turning around rapidly, you heard the camera shutter go off with an all-too familiar voice ringing out a "Smile!" your eyes landed on the culprit which was none other than said cameraman, Mark Lee, carrying a camera in one hand and a - now empty - bucket in the other.

Letting the camera dangle from the toy story camera strap you gifted him hanging around his neck, his giggly giddy laugh echoing within the almost-empty underground carpark. Usually this would've been enough to cloud your judgement with sheer endearment for the boy, but you opted to whack him on the arm and kick his butt as punishment for getting you wet with foamy water.

"You're lucky you have that camera or I would've drowned you by now," you huffed, seeing him pucker his lips at you, shaking his butt from side to side in some sort of attempt to mock you, which you found unbearably cute instead.

“I know," he told you in a matter-of-fact tone, throwing the empty bucket aside before bringing his hand up to comb through his hair and wipe the sweat from his face with the hem of his t-shirt, which of course caused you to look away quicker than lightning. The hair that he had now pushed back messily on his head was recently dyed back to black from its previous stunt of blonde he thought would be fun to try. You had to say, as much as he was annoying you right now, how he looked in his hawaii print shorts and his white shirt was distracting you.

"Feels good to be an organizer, no getting wet and gross like you," he stuck his tongue out, making you roll your eyes in response, snatching the bucket back from where he threw it on the floor so you could hand it back to the logistics member running the particular station game you were at.

"Don't you have other people to take pictures of?" you sneered, his seagull eyebrows rising in disbelief that you sounded as if you didn't want him there so he turned around, making as if he were about to leave.

"Well sure if you don't want me here," you grabbed his shirt before he could walk any further, pulling it so he stumbled back next to you, slippers stomping noisily.

"No, wait. I’m kidding stay here don't leave me," you pleaded, flashing him your signature pout with your best attempt at sympathetic eyes, making his nose scrunch up in a smile as his hands unconsciously clenched.

"God, don't give me that face," one of the participants in your group waggled her eyebrows at you behind Mark's shoulder, making you flush and shoo her away with a flick of your hand.

"Good, isn't it? if I keep practising, you bet I can get my mom to checkout my shopping cart for Christmas in no time," you grinned, earning a good-natured shake of the head from Mark.

"It's shower time after this right?" you asked, the sludging and squeaking of your wet slippers irking you as you walked behind your group with Mark, who glanced at his watch before nodding at you.

Mark couldn’t help the giggle that escaped from his lips as he saw the way your arms would unconsciously raise as you tried to take your steps with minimal noise. “Yeah, you guys can hit the showers after this, especially you.”

You heard his stomach grumble, your gaze shooting up from the floor so you could frown at him.

“Please tell me you ate during lunch...” Mark was sheepish, laughing nervously as he shrugged, his hands fumbling around as he debated on whether to avoid the question or listen to the scolding he assumed you were about to give him.

"Well, I got a lot of reviews on the catering??" you sighed at his reply, making sure he knew how displeased you were at that fact.

"Mark,” your hands found their way to your hips, “you can't just keep forgetting things like this, I swear, no one else is gonna remind you to eat if I don't," you told him, recalling how Mark had been like this ever since high school when he started taking up more responsibilities in student council and being basketball captain and whatnot. You remembered the many lunch periods you would have to spend with him in the council room with him rushing a proposal or his homework.

"Well, at least I still have you right?" he offered with a hopeful smile, but your expression remained unwavering so he continued, "c'mon, it's my first time leading a camp; I want to do a good job."

You looked at him in understanding, resigning to the fact that Mark wouldn't back down so easily since he wanted to work hard. "Alright, fine. But I’m still gonna hound you about necessities whether you like it or not, mister," he seemed to have no objections to that, simply choosing to nod at you as if it was something he wanted.

"Wouldn't have it any other way," he picked up his megaphone and held it away from you, pushing the button- successfully, for once -to signal the siren for the facilitators to dismiss their groups for shower time.

After you were showered and in a fresh pair of clothing, you brought your things down to the canteen for dinner. It wasn't surprising that you already saw Mark waiting in the canteen, though he was looking rather rigid while talking to Jaemin, which you were curious about since you knew them to be quite comfortable with each other. Walking past them, you caught Jaemin’s eye, making him halt his conversation with Mark to wave at you with a smile, yet Mark seemed to be glaring at Jaemin the entire time.

Gathering your group of kids to get their food, you made your way to the drink dispenser, doing your best to carry multiple cups at once so you wouldn't have to make a second trip back.

"Here, lemme help you with that," Mark showed up in front of you, obstructing your path as he proceeded to take half the cups from you, earning more than a few unnoticed stares from the campers who absolutely adored the idea of you and Mark actually dating.

"Thanks," you murmured, the tip of your tongue peeking out from your lips in concentration so you wouldn't spill your drinks.

"How's the food?" he asked you.

"Haven't eaten it yet, but smells great," his eyes crinkled in a bright smile at your reply.

"Really? That's great," he sighed in relief.

After placing the drinks on your group's table he sat at one of the empty seats and spoke with you for a while as your campers slowly came back one by one. You missed the suspicious stares your campers were giving you at Mark's presence at the table. He had a hand resting on the back of your chair casually, an almost identical scene from when you had to make sure Mark ate while he buried himself in student council work.

The two of you shared food from one plate since Mark had helped take enough for the both of you, not getting a separate one for himself because he was lazy. You know, totally not because he just wanted an excuse for you to feed him while he pretended to be busy skimming through the agenda for the rest of the day.

"Do you have to leave soon for prep?" you asked him, seeing an look of realisation wash over his face, nodding at you when he glanced at the time.

Letting out a breathy sigh, he stood up, megaphone in one hand while picking up your now empty plastic plate and cutlery to help you dispose of it.

"See you later, dude," you waved sadly, and you couldn’t help but laugh as he let out his signature nose scrunch and giggle before his lips jut out in a pout, waving goodbye as he left.

Considering the fact that for the rest of the day you were busy with your group and Mark was busy making sure everything was in order, the both of you didn’t manage to find the time to stop and talk to each other when you even simply crossed paths in the hallways, settling for a playful poke in his side or a nod of the head from him as a greeting.

Thankfully, just as your back had started to hurt and your eyes started to feel heavy, it was time for the night debrief. You walked into the room, glad to see Mark had saved a space for you and was waving you over to come sit with him, beckoning you over while patting the empty space next to him.

"Hey," he greeted you with a smile, his nose scrunching when you knocked over the hood of his jacket to ruffle his hair.

"Glad that one day is almost done with," your words were slightly muffled as you yawned, seeing him shoot you a look of agreement and nod with a sigh.

"I know, right? Hope none of the committee make noise tonight, I’m really hoping I can sleep as soon as possible," he admitted, pressing his lips into a firm line as he glanced at the things he was supposed to discuss during the debrief.

You wanted to get something to munch on to keep you awake during the debrief, looking around the room as if scanning to see if any members of the service team were in possession of food, and it was as if Mark could read your mind when he took out a pack of cookies from his jacket pocket, passing it to you ever so subtly.

“Thanks, dude,” you heard Donghyuck’s voice interrupt when he reached over to take the packet from your hands, bursting it open and munching on one, much to the dismay of Mark, though he didn’t say anything, simply smiling and returning to his papers when you flicked Donghyuck on the forehead and reclaimed your cookies.

Debrief went by fairly quickly, with Mark running through the points he needed to take note of as quickly as he could. You were already feeling a little restless after finishing your cookies so you leant your head against Renjun’s shoulder since he was sitting closest to you in the circle, earning a soft chuckle from him, “Careful now, your boyfriend might get jealous,” he teased.

Harshly whispering back, “what boyfriend,” you huffed, rolling your eyes.

When debrief had ended, you were feeling really tired so after washing up and changing into your sleeping clothes you were happy to have found Mark already waiting for you outside the girls’ dorm to walk with you to the communal sleeping area.

“You’re not sleeping yet?” you asked, already yawning. Mark shook his head with a yawn himself, “still gotta finalise some stuff for tomorrow’s program.”

You frowned, waiting obediently as he had already helped the both of you take a mattress each and lay it at the side facing each other since there wasn’t much space left in the room.

Squatting next to your mattress and laying out your sleeping bag, you voiced out as softly but firmly as you could, “why couldn't they have told you earlier? It's not fair that you have to stay up doing work for them while they’re all happily asleep," you felt a tinge of annoyance at the unfairness of it all but Mark simply ruffled your hair good-naturedly, assuring you it was okay, all the while his face was heating up from his heart fluttering at your concern for him.

Once you were tucked into your sleeping bag you glanced up at Mark who was still sitting with one knee tucked under his chin, his face illuminated by the light from his phone. As if feeling your stare on him, he glanced from his phone to you, placing his phone down to give his attention to you.

“Go to sleep, you’ve got a long day tomorrow,” his voice was barely a murmur, fatigue laced in his tone.

“You should be sleeping too, you know. It’s not as if we go through different camps..”

Mark let out a soft huff of laughter, whispering back trying to reassure you, “I know, I will. Don’t worry about me and get some sleep, alright?”

Rolling over in your sleeping bag, you stared Mark down as hard as you could, “no. I refuse. For as long as you’re awake, I’m not gonna sleep,’ you huffed.

Mark knew that your claim was far- fetched, seeing as he could tell you were tired, with how your head would lull to the side ever so often and your breathing would even out before you would jolt awake suddenly, remembering your promise to stay awake.

But true enough, he wasn’t even 2 pages into his documents when he heard the light thud of your head hitting the mattress, your breaths slowing down and becoming deeper. Seeing as you didn’t bring a pillow to the camp, Mark figured he could do without his jacket since he probably wasn’t getting much sleep tonight anyway, folding his jacket carefully into a nice rectangle, one hand lifting your head gently to slide the jacket underneath so your head could rest gently on it.

“Goodnight,” he murmured, tugging your sleeping bag up to cover you more before he resumed browsing his documents.

===

The next morning, during the briefing in the morning, one of the members leading the service team had decided to add morning exercises to get everybody’s energy up, part of this including stretches.

You were a little hesitant to do the stretches since you realized your shirt would ride up a little when you had to do certain stretches, but you tried your best. Mark was a little late, walking in and not being able to help the laugh from slipping out of his mouth when he saw you struggling to do the stretches, but he couldn’t stay entertained when he saw one of the older guys from the service team checking you out while you were doing the stretches.

His best solution he could think of in the moment was to shed himself of his jacket and wordlessly walk over to tie it around your waist, successfully covering you adequately and making you a lot more comfortable, as evident in how you could freely stretch without fear of exposing too much you weren’t comfortable with.

Your cheeks flushed, not expecting Mark to swoop in with such a gesture that you obviously weren’t prepared for so early in the morning.

“Sleep well?” he asked, his voice still hoarse from sleep, joining the stretches smoothly and you had to keep your gaze focused forward so you wouldn’t lose concentration.

“Yeah, you?” he nodded.

“What’s for breakfast, organizer?” you grinned.

“Cereal, dummy. You were the one that bought it, remember?” your mouth formed an ‘o’ shape in realisation.

“Oh, right,” you laughed.

The rest of the day went by fairly fast, the highlight of it being that Donghyuck wouldn’t shut up about how flustered Mark was when he was caught off guard during your session you were giving, when he was too busy admiring you and not paying much attention to what you were saying. “He was totally drooling! Renjun can vouch for it,”


“Renjun is not a reliable source, if anything, Mark was just tired, and zoning out. That’s all.”

You could practically hear Donghyuck rolling his eyes at you. “Listen to me, I’m just saying. I’ve known Mark longer than you have, and if anything, the last time I saw him act like this was... basically never, because Mark’s never cared about someone other than his family as much before.”

“Yeah, you said it, family. That’s what he sees me as, hyuck.”

“Yeah, his wife!” you choked on your fruit punch, pushing your dinner further from you on the table since you were done with it. “I mean, everyone can see it, might as well make it clear to the both of you before I have to resort to bringing you both together myself.”

“I love you too, hyuck,” he made a face of dismay, mocking you as he repeated what you had said.

“Also, does Mark have beef with Jaemin? He’s been acting really weird around him,” you voiced out, having noticed it yesterday during lunch.

Donghyuck laughed a little too loud, shaking his head vigorously, “Mark’s just weird,” he continued, voice dropping to a mutter, “I don’t know why you like him, he’s an idiot. But you know, I’m not here to judge, you do you.”

“Get out,” laughing, you shoved him off his chair, and his high pitched giggle rang out like bubbles.

Mark couldn't help the way his eyes searched the room for you whenever he stepped in, landing on you and Donghyuck when he heard the younger boy's laughter ringing in the distance.

"I bet if Y/N usually wore stripes you'd be really good at where's waldo," Renjun snickered at Mark's resemblance to a lovestruck-puppy as he looked at you and Donghyuck every five seconds while he ate.

Mark's head shot up at the sound of Renjun's comment, glaring at the boy seated in front of him.

"Whatever," he murmured, cheeks hollowing because of the way he pursed his lips, chewing aggressively on the food in his mouth as he saw Jaemin approaching you and Donghyuck to join the conversation.

"He's totally not her type anyway," he justified to no one in particular, earning a rather intense eye roll from Renjun.

“Does saying that make you feel like you have a better chance than Jaemin? It's not as if u can just… telekinesisJaemin away from her, you might as well man up and do something about it yourself if you wanna guarantee that he won’t get in the middle of whatever you two have going on,” Renjun sighed, shrugging as if he hadn't just had an encouraging best friend moment, leaving Mark wondering how Renjun could still manage looking so innocent sipping his orange juice.

Mark didn’t even notice when you had left the canteen with one of the participants from Jeno and Chenle’s group that wasn’t feeling well, leading him up to the toilet as quickly as you could because he needed to throw up.

The boy had mentioned that he had a history of bad health, and he wasn’t feeling well enough to stand on his own, so you figured it would be best if you could follow him to the toilet to make sure he wouldn’t faint. After many minutes of retching and coughing, the boy was starting to feel a little better and you let him wash his mouth before moving to lead him out of the toilet, only to come face to face with some of Mark’s fellow committee members- who you didn’t remember the names of, but you weren’t very fond of them anyway.

“What are you doing with this kid? Did you know that we’ve had to spend the last 15 minutes looking for you while you were doing God knows what in the male toilet?” one girl with a sleek ponytail had snapped, her voice sharp and cutting.

You furrowed your eyebrows, confusion taking over you, “hey, you should go join the rest now, tell Jeno and Chenle I’ll join them later.”

Turning your gaze to the committee members after you had seen the boy disappear around the corner, you continued, “I’m sorry, I think you’ve gotten the wrong idea. He wasn’t feeling well and I saw that Jeno and Chenle were busy so I took him to the toilet myself, that’s all that happened...”

“You couldn’t have asked another male facilitator, could you? Or were you just so eager to bring him to the male toilets yourself. You know, it’s hard to believe what you’re telling us, Y/N. I mean, we don’t necessarily have the bestimpression of you,” another one of the group had spoken up, and a strange feeling bubbled within your chest. You barely even knew any of these people, yet they seemed to have so much to say to you.

“This is a church camp...” you murmured, flinching slightly at how quick they were to bite back at you with an answer.

“Yeah, a church camp where this situation would have required a male facilitator to follow the participant, not you. Wonder what Mark would think if he saw you in the male toilets with a participant, whom, you know, is younger than you,” the ponytail girl had hummed, making you scoff.

“Mark knows I wouldn’t do that,” you spoke up, trying to make your voice as firm as possible.

“Yeah, but does everyone else know?” you were at a loss, your fists clenching and unclenching as you tried to find the right words to say to them, however they seemed to have beaten you to it.

“What’s your aim, huh? Are you mad because they made us in charge and not you? Did you think that you would’ve been chosen as well just because you’re close to Mark?” one of the guys had added, folding his arms and taking a step closer to you, his height practically towering over you. “You know, he’s not even doing that great of a job, for that matter-”

“Don’t you dare talk about Mark like that,” you frowned, though their laughter only served to make you feel even smaller in their presence. “Oh? Are we not allowed to? I mean, it’s the truth after all. The dumbass doesn’t even know we’ve just been making him do all our work for us,” she shrugged nonchalantly, making your frown grow even deeper.

“Is that how you make him go to your beck and call too? hmm?”

“My relationship with Mark isn’t like that...” you started, though you couldn’t seem to know what to say after that, which of course, gave them the perfect opportunity to mock you once again.

“Really, now?” the ponytail girl had leaned closer to you, the sarcasm in her tone making your eyes roll. “Then what is it like? like you and that kid you fooled around with?”

You held yourself back, not wanting to tear up from their words but not being able to help your frustration.

“I did not fool around with him. He was sick and I brought him to the washroom,” your voice trembled with the sheer amount of anger you were feeling.

“Sure, whatever, Y/N. Just make sure it doesn’t happen again.” They left before you could say anything else, leaving you dumbfounded as you made your way back to the hall for the next session.

===

It was no surprise that Donghyuck found your behavior suspicious when you returned to the hall, and though you acted as per normal through the session, when Mark had dismissed everyone for an hour of free time before dinner, he’d taken the opportunity to sit you down and squeeze whatever gossip material he could get out of you.

“What happened during lunch? You left with Jisung, right?”

You nodded, picking up the crumbs of bread that had fallen on your pants and tossing them elsewhere, “yeah, he needed to puke and Jeno and Chenle were busy serving food.”

A silence fell between the both of you as Donghyuck continued to look at you expectantly, “Yeah, and?” he prompted with a ‘duh’ tone.

“What do you mean, ‘and’? that’s it.”

“Cut the bullshit, dude. Jeno and Chenle told me Jisung came back without you, said the committee were giving you shit.”

You sighed, finishing the last bite of your bread and gesturing to Donghyuck to hand you your water-bottle, taking your time to sip your water- and pluck up your courage -before you decided to continue, “they were just talking shit, as usual. No big deal.”

“What did they say to you?” he prodded again, making you shoot him a look.

“You’re not gonna stop till I tell you everything, aren’t you?” he nodded with a sickening smile, batting his eyes at you expectantly.

“I don’t know...you know, like....they started saying I brought Jisung into the cubicle with me on purpose or something-”

Donghyuck’s eyes widened, before his eyebrows furrowed in confusion “Huh? To do what?”

“I don’t know!” your tone was exasperated, glad that Donghyuck felt the situation was just as absurd as you thought it was. “Whatever it is it clearly wasn’t what I was really helping Jisung out with!” you huffed.

“They said it as if I was fooling around with him or something...then they were saying shit like, like I don’t know they make Mark do all their work for them? And they asked me if I manipulated him that way to get him to do things for me as well and when I said that wasn’t the kind of relationship I had with Mark they were like ‘oh so you do the same things with Mark that you did with Jisung’? and I don’t know hyuck it was just really horrible and I felt like shit and I wanted to cry because I was so embarrassed but it was like I couldn’t even talk!” you gasped, practically panting after telling Donghyuck what had happened at one go.

Donghyuck paused, letting a silence fall between you for a while before letting out a scoff, and a rather exaggerated one at that, “aren’t you pissed? I’m super pissed and it didn’t even happen to me!”

You pouted at the floor before frowning at Donghyuck exasperatedly, “you know that there’s nothing I can do about it now. And as a matter of fact there’s nothing I want to do about it now. It’s over, Jisung is okay, and that’s all that matters.”

“You know that’s not it, Y/N.” In all your time of knowing Donghyuck, you would have to say that this was the most serious you’ve ever seen him act ( well, aside from when he’s playing video games with Jeno or Renjun ).

“Well, what do you suppose I do about it, genius?” you shot back, downing a big gulp of water to soothe your still slightly hoarse throat.

“I think you should tell Mark,” he told you as if it was the best idea in the entire world, earning a violent shake of the head from yourself.

“No way in hell- I mean, heck, that Mark is gonna know about this. Hyuck, I’m serious,” you put a hand on his knee that was on the bench to steady yourself.

“Mark already has so much on his plate, I can’t afford to have him worrying about even more things, especially not if it concerns me.” You could see that Donghyuck was thinking hard about this, the pout on his lips seeming to deepen as he glanced elsewhere with his eyebrows slightly furrowed, his eyes squinting the more deep in thought he got.

“I know! What if it wasn’t about you! I can just tell him the committee were giving somebody shit-“

“Donghyuck, are you hearing yourself right now? You’d have to mention me eventually if you went with that plan. Scrap that plan, go with my plan. Which is to just not tell Mark at all,” you grinned at him, holding two thumbs up in an attempt to be more convincing, earning yourself a very slow and accentuated eye roll from Donghyuck.

“Hyuck, I mean it. I know you’re gonna wanna do something to get back at them but believe me when I say I reallydon’t want this to be made into a big deal.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever. You have such little faith in me.”

You heard the sound of the megaphone’s siren signalling that it was dinnertime, so you said goodbye to Donghyuck and joined your own group to eat dinner.

Donghyuck, on the other hand, was busy gathering him and Mark’s group of friends to, if put in Donghyuck’s words- “spill the tea.”

Jaemin, Chenle, Renjun and Jeno were currently surrounding Donghyuck at one of the stone tables in the church that Donghyuck figured would make his announcement more professional, “okay, boys, first order of business. Let me tell you what happened to Y/N just now after she helped Jisung puke and whatever,” Jeno and Chenle shared what seemed to be a knowing look whereas Renjun and Jaemin just looked confused.

“Something happened?” Renjun spoke up, earning an equally confused sound from Jaemin, to which Donghyuck nodded gravely, proceeding to tell them exactly what you had told him prior to dinner time.

“I knew it!” Chenle shouted, standing up in his excitement before being shushed and shoved back into his seat by Jaemin and Renjun.

“I knew something was up when I was having touch time with Jisung just now, he said that the committee were saying things that ‘weren’t so nice’ to her but he couldn’t exactly remember what it was,” Jeno explained on Chenle’s behalf since the latter was too busy enjoying the fact that he was right about his suspicions against the committee.

“And she just stood there and took all of that?” Jaemnin asked, concern laced in his tone, glancing at a pissed-looking Renjun mid-speech.

“Well, she did say she was so humiliated and I doubt she could’ve gotten anything else in with all of those psychos ganging up on her,” Donghyuck shrugged, ���which is why I say we should do something about it! Avenge our dear sister whom Mark just so happens to be in love with!” Donghyuck pumped his fist in the air, earning a sound of agreement from Jeno and Chenle, but he felt opposition the moment he glanced at Renjun and Jaemin’s concerned expression.

“I don’t know, hyuck. I mean she did say she didn’t want it to be a big deal...” Jaemin started.

Chenle jumping in quickly to add, “Unless we just tell Mark?”

“But that’s exactly what she didn’t want us to do!” Jaemin shushed Chenle again, who simply shrugged in defeat, “well that’s the limit of my ideas, man,” Chenle shrugged.

“I think we should tell Mark,” Renjun piped up, to which Jaemin asked, “wait are you on our team or against us?”

“Nobody’s against anybody here!” Donghyuck sighed, desperately wanting to facepalm, thinking again to himself why he thought telling them would be a good idea.

“The only people we should be against are those stupid committee members.”

“Wait who are they again?” Jeno asked, earning a loud groan from Jaemin.

Eventually, their discussion drifted elsewhere after someone had mentioned the brownies being served for dessert, leaving Renjun to be the only one silently thinking of how to approach Mark to break the news to him before it was time for debrief since the group of them couldn’t decide on things for shit.

===

“Dude I need to talk to you,” Renjun closed the door to the empty committee room that Mark was currently in, since after the groups were done sharing they would have to be dismissed to go to sleep and it would already be time for debrief.

“Uh-huh,” Mark barely glanced away from his notes he’d taken in the day, earning a tired look from Renjun.

“Dude I’m serious, I need to talk to you it’s about Y/N.”

“Huh?” Mark finally tore his gaze from his papers, before shaking his head and returning his glare to them again, saying, “Renjun, I’m really sorry but can this wait? I really need to make sure  got everything down here, the priest is gonna be there at the debrief later and if I screw this up it’s gonna look really bad on me as the person in charge.”

Raising his hands in an action of surrender, “Ok, fine man, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

===

When you got to the room where the debrief was going to be held, you avoided the smug looks on the committee members’ faces as they whispered amongst themselves and pointed at you not-so-subtly as you made your way next to where Mark was seated.

“Hey,” you chirped, seeing his head tilt up to look at you, a smile on his face when he realized it was you.

“Hey,” he greeted.

You chose not to distract him since he seemed to be rather focused on his notes, making you feel a little upset at how he was over here stressing out about the agenda for the debrief while the other committee members were lounging on the table idling away.

Thankfully, Mark had started the debrief a little early today, with the reasoning that he understood everyone would like to go to sleep as soon as possible after the long day you had today. Running through the list of things to cover quickly, what was next was when Mark would routinely ask if any participants were not feeling well and he would proceed to check back with the groups on those participants whose sicknesses were already reported to him.

“Group 7?” Mark asked, and you knew this was Jisung’s group, so you were expecting Mark to ask about Jisung but Chenle and Jeno’s statement caught you off guard.

“Jisung was actually feeling really bad around lunchtime? Chenle and I were busy serving food so he was accompanied by Y/N instead, since it was pretty urgent and he’d puked up a lot according to him,” Chenle made a disgusted face at Jeno’s words.

“He’s still feeling a little queasy but we gave him some medicine before we sent him to bed. HIs mom says he has a really sensitive stomach but he claims after he puked he felt a little better. But thankfully since Y/N was there it really helped him- and us -loads.” Chenle nodded, flashing you an appreciative smile as Jeno awaited Mark’s reaction.

Mark’s expression darkened, turning to the committee members who were behind him to ask, “why was I not notified that we had a participant that threw up and was under medication?” the ponytail haired girl suddenly seemed as though she had a lot less to say compared to when she was outside the washroom with you earlier.

“Well, you know....uh, well, we assumed since Y/N was the one who was so eagerly helping Jisung, she would’ve told you about the situation,” she shrugged, her gaze pointed at you.

Mark turned to you momentarily before narrowing his eyes at the committee once again, “so you were aware that this was happening and none of you decided to double check if I was notified about this?”

One of the taller guy members sitting next to the ponytail haired girl had spoken up, “well since Y/N-”

“Whether or not she was involved is not the main concern here. Her responsibilities do not include doing the work that is meant to be done by the group of you.”

You looked at Donghyuck with a panicked expression, seeing his lips pressed together in an attempt not to laugh amidst the tense atmosphere that had fallen throughout the room.

“What the heck is going on?” you mouthed to Renjun since Donghyuck didn’t seem to be able to be of any help right now, seeing Renjun shrug, pointing at Mark before using both his index fingers to make angry eyebrows on his face.

Mark lowered his voice so he could direct his words more specifically to the committee members, “I don’t know what you take your responsibilities in this camp to be, but clearly you’re not taking them seriously enough, not with you thinking I’m actually stupid enough to not realize you’ve been asking me to do extra work since you’re all seemingly incapable of doing it, and to add on to that you think that even non committee should be taking care of and receiving blame for your faults?” Mark’s voice raised slightly before he remembered the presence of the priest in the room, which served to remind him to keep his calm a little.

Mark turned back around to face the rest of the team, “Any other issues you would like to raise? if not there’s no further things we need to discuss on the agenda, you guys are dismissed. Committee please stay behind.” Mark’s aura was a lot more intimidating than you’d seen him in a while, and you understood why since you knew this was his first time being in charge of a camp and he wanted to do a good job and prove himself, but it seemed like things weren’t going as planned.

You decided it was better to leave him to do his own thing now before he could get more triggered, leaving the room after giving him a gentle squeeze of his arm.

Renjun had met Mark downstairs in the canteen after most of the service team members had gone to sleep. He felt a little pity for the older boy, seeing how his eyes had dark circles under them, his hair was messy now probably after many times of frustratedly running his hands through it, and he looked absolutely ready to pass out.

“So...debrief, huh,” Renjun let out a low whistle.

“I know, it was a mess. I can’t believe I could let that happen-“

“Did they tell you what happened?”

Mark’s eyes narrowed at Renjun, taking a seat at the bench in the open air, enjoying the cool wind of the night time that served to comfort him just a little in the midst of him feeling like absolute shit. “You mean you’re telling me there’s more that happened?” Mark’s voice was tired, sounding as if nothing would surprise him any more than he already was.

“The committee, they basically attacked - well, verbally attacked -Y/N when they saw her coming out of the male toilets with Jisung.”

Mark frowned, already getting riled up at the thought of what kind of things they could have said to you.

“They were talking to her as if she’d brought Jisung to the toilet to do....things with him, and they sort of told her that you weren’t doing that great of a job as someone in charge and asked her if she manipulated you into being at her ‘beck and call’ too…and- I don’t know there was a lot of things. They sort of put her on the spot,” Mark fell silent, the only thing he could liken his emotions to was a washing machine with his anger just busily rolling around in his mind and heart.

“Okay before you get mad, or more mad actually, the rest of the gang and I were saying that we wanted to respect her decision of not wanting to make this a big deal-”

“Wait so the rest of the guys know what happened already? I’m the last one to know?”

Renjun sucked in a sharp breath, “well....yeah,”

Mark ran his fingers through his hair for what must’ve been the hundredth time that night, “What the hell...why didn’t she tell me?”

“I mean-” Mark stood up suddenly, shocking Renjun. Mark fiddled with his phone, quickly thumbing out a message to ask you where you were.

12:18am -huh, why? i was just about to go to the sleeping area-

Mark 12:18 am -wait for me at the door-

Mark pocketed his phone quickly, “sorry, man, I gotta go.”

“Okay, fine, just totally abandon your friend who just gave you important information. It’s fine with me,” Renjun threw his hands up in exaggerated offence.

Mark was anticipating some sort of dramatic confrontation to happen when he reached the door but when he actually saw you in front of him, he’d felt as though he’d lost all the words he wanted to say.

You were relatively quiet since you weren’t sure how Mark was feeling, but you let him do the usual and bring mattresses for the both of you to lay it on the stage.

Since you were already tired beyond belief from the events that happened during the day, you didn’t refuse this time to lay in your sleeping bag and get ready to sleep, hearing Mark mumble something next to you, making you turn your head to face him, a small hum escaping your lips.

“What happened this afternoon?” he asked you, his voice clear enough that you wouldn’t have mistaken him to be saying something else. Though at this time of the night, you were desperate to give him answers to his questions so you could go to sleep, simply choosing to tell him what you thought he was asking you.

“Jisung wasn’t feeling well, he said he felt like throwing up so I brought him to the toilet.”

You heard a silence from him, assuming he was finished with his questions, “I’m gonna sleep no-”

“I asked about you, not about Jisung.”

You were too tired to realize the annoyance in his tone, turning to face him, eyebrows furrowing, “me? Nothing happened to be I mean yeah sure seeing him puke kind of made me want to puke but-”

“God, why the f-“ he stopped himself, looking at you before letting out a shaky breath, “when will you just put yourself first for once,” he turned around in his sleeping bag so his back was facing you.

“Mark,” you whispered, hoping he would turn around.

“Mark,” you murmured again, “Mark. Turn around, what are you trying to say?” you reached out a hand to shake him gently on the shoulder, feeling him grip your hand tightly, peeling it off his shoulder.

“Go to sleep, Y/N.”

===

The next morning you weren’t surprised to have woken up and found that Mark wasn’t next to you, and you hated the looks of confusion Donghyuck was giving you as to why you weren’t talking to Mark that morning. Making your way downstairs with Jaemin to have breakfast, you chose not to bother Mark more since he obviously seemed annoyed with you for some reason.

“Are you feeling better?....you know, after yesterday?” Jaemin asked, concern laced in his tone.

You shrugged, “If I were being honest....I feel even worse. I thought it would be okay, you know, after it got brought up during the debrief but..” you shrugged, trailing off as you collected your breakfast from the servers, waiting for Jaemin to collect his drink. “But I don’t know, Mark said something to me last night and he sounded pretty annoyed at me and it just made me feel...like shit I guess,” you shrugged again.

Leading you to the table where Donghyuck and Chenle were sat at, you’d joined them for breakfast, Jaemin successfully cheering you up after you’d seen Mark come into the canteen and leave with Renjun shortly after, not even remembering to take his breakfast with him, yet something in you knew you couldn’t exactly tell him to eat his breakfast now.

“Dude what’s wrong with you? I thought you would’ve worked things out with her by now?” Renjun waved his hands frantically in front of a zoned-out Mark’s face.

“Huh?”

“Why, are you, so awkward, with her?” Renjun said slowly, pausing between the sentence to break down each word for Mark with a sarcastic tone.

Mark made a disgruntled sound in response. “I just need to calm down first, okay? Everytime I see her I just think of what happened and why she didn’t wanna tell me. If I confronted her about it now what would I even say?” Mark frowned, “oh yeah I’m in love with you lol haha ttyl? It’s not that simple, Renjun.”

Renjun’s mouth dropped open, poorly stifling his laugh at whatever you could call what Mark just did.

“Mark... you know I love you but...but if she still loves you after that kind of confession, that’s how you know it’s real love.”

Mark whined, “shut up, Renjun.”

“Where is she anyway?” Mark did his best to sound nonchalant but it was hard to act nonchalant when you seemed to be completely fine at your table playing games with the guys and being so close to Jaemin, and no, Mark didn’t care if the game required you to cross hands with the person next to you because to Mark any contact with Jaemin was just automatically deemed unnecessary.

Mark saw you jump away from Jaemin and look and his direction, not even realizing why until Renjun took the megaphone out of his hand.

“What are you doing!” Renjun clicked a button on the megaphone to stop the siren, talking into it, “sorry guys false alarm.”

Shoving the megaphone back into Mark’s chest, a muffled grunt sounding from Mark, Renjun shook his head in disappoinment, “times like this I really need to remind myself why I’m your friend.”

===

Later on in that day, the committee had separated everyone into different groups to carry out the clean-up for the respective areas, and your assigned area was the carpark, which meant you were busy lugging around heavy buckets of water around the carpark in an attempt to clean it without slipping on the water and falling.

Your pants were rolled up to your knees and you were struggling to carry up a bucket to the second floor of the basement with Chenle because the more he laughed the more the water tended to spill over to your side of the bucket. Once you had set the bucket down, you thought you could finally take a break but you heard Jeno calling you over to where he was.

“Y/N, can you please go to the canteen to help shift the stuff upstairs?”

You hesitated, since your feet and slippers were already so wet, shifting the things upstairs in your condition now was just going to be a pain in the ass that you didn’t really want to deal with right now.

“Please, please please, I’m really busy right now, I’ll buy you a drink when we’re done or something,” he clasped his hands in front of him in a begging action.

Your eyes widened in interest, “I get to decide what drink it is?”

“Yeah sure of course!” You grinned in response, running ( or trying your best to with your wet slippers ) up the stairs to the canteen, looking around to see who you were supposed to help until you saw Mark, the instinctive urge to pick flight instead of fight taking over you.

You decided there was no going back now since you did want that free drink after all, so you made your way over to where Mark was, seeing his eyes widen at the sight of you there instead of Jeno.

“What are you doing here? I called Jeno.”

“Oh, uh...he was busy with stuff so he told me to come up to help instead,” you told Mark, not missing the way he kept shifting his weight from foot to foot, bringing a hand up to grasp the back of his neck.

“Do you want me to leave? I can like call someone else to come here instead-”

“Yeah,” he breathed, your eyes widening in response. “Wait!, I mean, no! I mean, like- Jeno, no wait, you-” he stopped himself, taking a deep breath in and out, facing you with a serious expression.

“Don’t leave. Just help me shift this stuff upstairs.” He handed you two boxes stacked on top of each other. Not wanting to get in his way, you decided to turn to walk the other way up the stairs but you seemed to have turned too sharply, the smooth surface of the floor and the water on your slipper causing you to trip, landing roughly on the floor, boxes scattered elsewhere as the only thing you could focus on was the sharp pain that shot through your ankle.

Mark had immediately put down whatever he was holding, shocked sounds escaping him at an uncontrollable rate as he made his way to your side, asking you if you were okay, his eyes scanning your limbs rapidly to see if you had injured yourself.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry, whatever’s in those boxes must be broken because of me-“

“Even now you’re still thinking of the boxes?” he gave you a displeased look.

“Huh?” you frowned.

“I mean, whatever was in the boxes was probably really important....”

He shot you a look, “so are you, you know....you’re like....” he looked away, “important...and stuff.”

You couldn’t help the laugh that threatened to bubble from your throat, “oh my God, please shut up and get me off the floor before you continue.”

“Are you hurt anywhere?” Mark asked, making you snort in reply.

“Yeah, my heart.”

“Huh?”

“My leg, Mark. My ankle really hurts,” you pointed at your ankle, letting him hobble you over to the nearest bench you could find, awkwardly trying to point your gaze elsewhere when he knelt down in front of you and took off your slipper, “oh my-Mark don’t, that’s gross! Please, my feet are wet!”

“Shut up, can you just-“ he shot you a look, “let me do this, I know what I’m doing. This happened to the basketball guys all the time.”

You nodded slowly, still trying to avoid looking at him in fear that you’d get even more shy than you were now.

“That was like a metaphor, you know, in case you didn’t get it.”

“Mark, I didn’t take literature,” you added pointedly, earning an eye roll from him, choosing to press particularly hard on your ankle at that point.

“Sorry if I...you know, annoyed you last night or something,” you muttered, finally making eye contact with him when he looked up at you with an unreadable expression.

“No, I sort of was being a dick to you last night... I was just kind of...stressed I guess,” he shrugged, continuing to massage at your feet.

“Look, Mark. You obviously know about everything that happened yesterday afternoon right?” he looked up to nod at you, “and you can say that you weren’t the least bit worried?”

He let out a scoff, “What? Of course I was worried! I was so pissed off-”

“Mark that’s precisely why I didn’t want to tell you in the first place! I knew that you had a lot going on and a lot that you needed to take care of, and worrying about me was the last thing I wanted to add to your list of things to do,” you told him, seeing his ears start to tint red.

“Yeah but how do you think it feels for the girl I like to leave me out of things like this?” he asked you, a challenging tone laced in his voice.

“Wait, you like me?” you asked.

Mark’s eyes widened, “shit, wait...that was not how I planned to tell you.”

He let go of your leg, standing up and taking a seat next to you, turning his body to face you. “Okay, rewind. Pretend I didn’t say that,” you nodded at him, trying your best to stifle your laugh but you could feel yourself grinning widely at him.

“I like....wait, do you have a thing with Jaemin?” He narrowed his eyes at you, using his index finger and middle finger to cross each other.

You burst out laughing at that, especially because Mark’s sincere pout made it even funnier, “no, of course not. Who even told you that?”

Mark let out an annoyed groan, “not important, anyway. As I was saying, I didn’t wanna tell you because I didn’t want to impose anything on you, not with the whole possible Jaemin situation anyway. Also because...you know.....secret boy stuff.”

“Secret boy stuff?” you quirked an eyebrow at him.

“I was scared, okay?” he glanced up nervously at you before looking down at his interlocked fingers and continuing, “I thought...it’d be weird for us to keep being friends if you didn’t feel the same way, and I didn’t want things to just end like that, you know?”

You nodded slowly, “I get it, you and your secret boy stuff,” you smiled, reaching out a hand to pat him on the head.

“I guess I only realized how much I actually...oh my god this is so embarrassing to say but...I only realized how much I liked you when I heard what those committee members said to you. And I just, kind of, felt really horrible because of how I was just over here acting like I was having the hardest time when you were too.”

“You weren’t acting, Mark.”

He contemplated mentioning to you how he sometimes pretended to be busy with work so you would give him attention but decided against it, lest you stopped doing that.

“Well, if it makes you feel any better…I like you too, you know,” you told him, enjoying the way his eyes widened, his gaze immediately flitting elsewhere from being too shy to keep your gaze.

This time it was Mark’s turn to laugh, shaking his head as a soft smile found its way onto his features, “we’re kind of stupid, aren’t we?”

You looked at him, not being able to resist smiling at the sight of him, “very,” you nodded your head.

===

The last day of the camp brought the usual, photo taking, bag packing, you and Jeno bringing the leftover snacks from the camp home for yourselves. Everything seemed as if it was just like any other camp, but Mark was insistent on finding every opportunity to remind you he was dating you now.

“Here, let me carry your bag,” he offered as you were walking down the stairs to the front entrance of your church, saying goodbye to the campers that walked past the both of you to leave.

“Mark, just put it on the floor we’re not even leaving yet.”

Donghyuck snickered at your comment, holding out his bag in front of Mark, “I’ll gladly let you carry mine.”

“You guys need a lift? My mom’s sending me home,” Chenle jogged over to you guys, earning murmurs of ‘no’s and ‘its okay’s except for the ‘yes please’ that Renjun squeaked out, practically wobbling under the weight of his duffel bag.

“My mom can send you back, unless you’re coming over to my place?” Mark told you, or more like asked you.

You hummed, “I don’t know, I kind of feel like going home and taking a good shower, maybe I’ll come over after that?”

Mark grinned, nodding in approval.

“You guys haven’t gotten enough of each other yet? I’ve seen enough of Jaemin to last me 5 years,” Renjun shot you and Mark a disgusted look.

You were caught off guard when Mark slung his hand over your shoulder, pulling you closer rather abruptly, squishing your face against him “never,” he said confidently.

Gagging sounds resounded around the group, Donghyuck letting out a pained groan, “I kind of miss when they weren’t aware of each other’s feelings now,” he cringed, earning a high five from Renjun.

“I think it’s kind of cute,” Chenle piped up, earning a handshake from Mark, “thanks for the support, man.”

Jaemin burst out laughing, “Chenle’s opinion doesn’t count he thinks everything is cute.”

You saw Mark’s mom’s car drive into the church, nudging Mark gently, “hey, your mom is here.”

After saying goodbye to the guys you got into the car, not missing the knowing look Mark’s mom was giving Mark but choosing not to say anything about it.

“Y/N’s coming over later, mom, so you can cook more for dinner.”

“uh-huh, alright,” she smiled. She’d already heard from Donghyuck about what happened that very morning when she met him in the church so she wasn’t surprised in the least, especially when she heard from Donghyuck about how Mark was so shy he had to stop to giggle first before asking if he could hold your hand.

You were home sooner than you’d wanted to be, stepping out of the car and bidding Mark and his mom goodbye with a ( too breathless-sounding ) “see you later” and once you were gone, Mark let out a big sigh, fanning his face as he made eye contact with his mom in the rear-view mirror.

“Finally, huh.”

“Well, you know...I like her.... and stuff.”

[wontshutup]

Clossest thing to Family: March 27, 2019 (Intro)

This is an idea that was written first for shifting purposes and suddenly turned into a narrative so, it might be a little of a personal self-insert, however, I decided to give it a try as a Y/N fic and well, I hope you like it.

It takes place during the first season of the Umbrella academy, this one however is more like and introductory chapter. 

It will contain spoiler as it tries to follow the show’s timeline, for obvious reasons some things will be changed to be able to introduce reader into it. I take no credit for the whole thing whatsoever, that one goes to Steve Blackman, Gerard Way and every brilliant mind included in the thought process to bring this amazing series to life.

Warnings: mild swearing, appart from that, I believe none.

English is not my first language, neither do I live in the USA, just in case there are a few things that might just feel a little out of the actual social context in the narrative. Also, the italics are meant to be thoughts, however it all is narrated in first person (your POV) so idk if that makes sense rn.

I had just made it up the stairs from the subway station, only to be met by the rather unwelcoming cold of the raindrops, the rain was quick to go from a light shower to a heavy pour. I pulled my scarf a little higher, trying to cover myself, and clutched my backpack as I ran to the nearest place I could shield myself from the rain. I rushed under a small tented window  shop and dived my hand into my bag, rummaging my way inside it in search for my umbrella as fast as I could, I had to be fast, the weather kept on dropping and my immune system couldn’t afford a cold right now. Unfortunately, life had different plans from me today

 "You've gotta be kidding me" I sighed out, scolding myself today of ALL days, really!?! With no other choice but to navigate my way as best I could to avoid getting wet, I made my way to where I was meant to go, my every muscle begging for a warm bath, but no time, the place was most likely closing any second now.

As I rushed to the small lab I felt the vapors that my body had generated by the long hours of training and the crowded subway starting to seep through my jacket at a worrying pace, threatening to leave me defenseless from the dropping temperature and raising the chances of catching a cold.

Reaching my destination, I pushed the door in a rush to get inside, the warmth from the heater spread through my cheeks giving a slight welcoming feeling for which I was very thankful.

"How can I help you?" asked the lady at the desk without even looking at me causing me to regret this stop already. I was taken off of what could've been a perfectly warm subway ride and a brief rush to catch the bus home, but nope, that was not it now.

"I came to pick up some sample results" still no attention from her, I let out a loud, dramatic sigh, now earning an annoyed look from her Geez and took out a receipt I had in my pocket "Here" I slapped it in her desk, maybe a tad bit harder than I had intended to. "Please?," I said giving her a forced smile to which she scoffed. 

"Wait over there".

Oh, Diego, you owe me on this one...I really did not have time for this, I was already getting pretty late and the rain was not ceasing any second now. Then again, if we were counting on debts, this was nothing compared to the one I had with Diego. Besides it was only picking up a couple of blood test results or "pieces of evidence" as he likes to call them, no big deal, so I took a seat and embraced myself to warm up better.

I allowed myself to feel a little bit more relaxed inside the place, enjoying the sensation while it lasted before having to, once again, rush against the weather to get home.

There was almost no one in the waiting room, of course, it was too late now, the few faces there seemed equally as tired as I felt, and I got it, however, being here must be really important to be waiting almost at midnight,  again, I got that too.

I grabbed a 2017 National Geographic that was laying on the center table and started reading, getting lost in the beautiful landscapes shown on each page, an announcement on the place's tv filled my ears, catching my attention.

"Breaking news, the world's most eccentric billionaire, traveler Sir. Reginald Hargreeves, better known as the founder of The Umbrella Academy has officially passed away today, stay with us for further detail." Diego. 

Putting down the magazine I quickly grabbed my phone and dialed his number, no beep, immediate voicemail. "Shit" I whispered. I tried again but nothing, again, voicemail. My hands started to become a little shaky but thankfully I was brought out of my trance.

"Diego Hargreeves?" called out the lady from the desk, I had to pick up the results, bringing the attention of the few strangers there upon me. It is not me guys, of course, please look away. I noticed the secretary's face was softer now, not soft thought,  pity was more like it. I hate pity. 

"I'm sorry about your grandfather" Oh so that's why. 

"He's not my-she raised her eyebrows expectantly.-ah, nevermind" and with that I grabbed the results and left as fast as I could, shoving the papers in my bag I started dialing again.

Does he know already? Voicemail. How will he take it? Machine. Is he even safe now? "This is Diego, you know what to do"

 "Fuck!" I was done with this, every night the exact same thing.

I keep trying to reach him, deliver the announcement in a more personal way than the news on TV could, not only because I care about him, but because as volatile as he is, the man has no actual impulse control and clearly no regard for his safety, otherwise, he wouldn't go out every night to "be the hero", well, how about picking up for once Mr. Hargreeves?!

Diego had told me little bits about his life every once in a while, how he lived and trained as part of the Umbrella Academy, but always seemed to hold back, keeping things to himself, and even if he had clearly expressed at some point that his father "is (or at least was) a monster" he seemed to care deeply about his opinion (more than he would let be known), and honestly, I had no idea of how was he going to react to such news, and at this point, I decided not to care.

As I paced angrily towards....I didn't know where I was heading, I was so lost in my worries for the man that I hadn't noticed I made it way farther from the station. 

“ACHOO” Oh no, that wasn't good. The one thing I was trying to avoid was catching up to me, I had to think fast...

Well, I was too tired now to go all the way back to the station, sit through another subway ride and wait for a bus that would take me home this time and under this weather, even if the rain had dialed down a little, the wind had become sharper, besides, the streets were getting darker and unsafer by the second, thus going back definitely wasn't the friendliest option. On another hand, I could stop a cab right now, and no, I am not crazy nor rich enough to pay for a ride all the way home, but I could take the money I have and in a matter of seconds be at the Hargreeves Manor just before I can actually catch a cold and hopefully get some rest? Besides, I had to meet them at some point, express my condolences to my mentor's family? Plus, knowing Diego, he is probably going to skip going back home and head there directly. 

“ACHOO”,that sneeze shook my body to one conclussion. It is settled, this I will regret later.

I ran to the side of the street, cold hitting my face, but just in time a cab came by "Hey, taxi!".

"Where to?" Heart pounding in my chest I gave the driver the simple name.

"Hargreeves Manor" he looked at me stranged from the rearview mirror, almost as if he knew this was a bad idea, honestly I share the thought. He took a couple of seconds as if allowing me to reconsider, and so I did...

“ACHOO....Agh-Please go" and so he started the car.

Well, guess there is no turning back then, it is time to meet the Hargreeves....